I've been hearing a lot of good things here and there about this film, but here's a taste of it for ya. Neo here is someone that I hope to have contributing in a semi-regularish manner.... Give him advice on what you do and don't like in his look at this script below in TALK BACK or to him via the email link. Fascinating eh? Well... here he goes...

Well here I am, hoping to tell you about some scripts regularly for Harry and all of you; and I'm stuck.

I don't have Harry's enthusiasm, but now I wish I did. I'm wholly incapable of using exclamation marks. Which leaves me stranded; how do I explain how much I'm dying to see this movie? How do I impart to you how much I hope this thing reaches the screen unchanged from the written word? How much I want to protect this film, and how much I want to tell this story to other people? I know Harry could do it, so I'll try.

It really looks like a banner year for kids. What I'd give to be a kid now and see The Phantom Menace with a kid's eyes, what I'd give to see The Iron Giant lacking pretense and history and cynicism in myself, and what I'd give to see through a child's eyes the most touching film about a child since E.T. What I'd give to have a child of my own now so I could show them these films and say "This is why I'm a filmmaker."

I'm talking about M. Night Shamalyan's _The Sixth Sense_. I wish I could tell you more about this film: what I've been able to turn up is that Bruce Willis is the lead, the kid who played Forrest Gump as a kid is the other lead, the genius Tak Fujimoto (Silence of the Lambs) is lighting it, and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are producing; and I hope they most of all see this movie through as it is written, as subtle, heartfelt, and terrifying.

Because _The Sixth Sense_ is for all intents and purposes a horror film. And I hope that doesn't keep children from seeing it. Then again, I saw Alien when I was four. To this day, I still get rid of bugs in my bedroom by catching them in a jar, and setting them free outside, so if any psychologists want to go toe to toe with me on the effect on kids, give me a shout. But _TSS_ is the real deal. No "THE FULL POWER OF THX IS UNLEASHED UPON THE AUDIENCE" in the script, just wonderfully effective and sustained dread at the mystery of life, and that's really what horror should be about. But it's also about coping, finding a way through, making peace, and choosing your purpose.

It begins with Malcolm Crowe, a preternaturally gifted child psychologist; dealing with abused or troubled children who are victims of or manifest violence at an early age. He is deeply in love with his wife Anna, and she with him.

One night, an old patient of Malcolm's returns; except now he is an adult, still troubled, still pained. Tragedy ensues. And life changes for Malcolm. He loses his purpose, his faith in it; and some rift has come between his wife and himself. She hardly seems to communicate with him.

Malcolm takes the case of Cole Sear, a gifted young child who exhibits much of the same behavior as that patient of his who disrupted his life. Malcolm has a chance to do it right this time; he needs to just one more time, to correct his past mistakes. For it seems that several of Malcolm's patients were unreachable, they all had the same symptoms, the same manner...

Now here's where _TSS_ really excels. It has the greatest part for a child actor written in years. This whole movie is going to hinge on the performance of this actor because Cole is precocious, gentle, yet troubled, haunted, and he seems to be prone to psychotic fits. His single mother cares for him intensely, with the deepest love she can give, but she is afraid because Cole manifests signs of physical abuse. He draws violent images at school and writes copious amounts of free form writing, some of it remarkably violent and adult. As for Cole, he is...

You are going to care for this kid so much. He's a reject, a loser, and he knows it; but there's something guarded about him that makes you aware that it's for a painfully deep reason. He sees the world in ways other don't - but he also sees the world in a nastier way than some do. This child is treated with such little condescending, he's not given any archaic hip dialogue, he never does anything cute - he is written as an intelligent child that is a whole human, albeit one that is troubling. There are no concessions to glib cuteness here. He's also funny, hyper intelligent, and caring. One of Shamalyan's gifts is to make the relationship between characters so incredibly believable, and each character, no matter how minor, is treated with respect. The relationship Cole has with his Mother is fully formed and as complex as Cole's with Malcolm; and it pays off because scenes pass by that are nothing more than dialogue between Cole and these adults but you're gripped by them.

Malcolm needs to help this child, maybe it will fix things between his wife and him, maybe it will fix himself. But there's something that makes him think he just might not be able to do it...

Now here's where the spoilers begin. I'm warning you, the only reason I give something away here is because I've been told the trailer gives this pretty important plot revelation, which comes fairly late in the story. But once it does, things start to make sense.

TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW...

Cole has a secret. And he comes to trust Malcolm, enough to tell him that...

He claims that he can see ghosts. The dead walk everywhere for him. They shatter his mind with glimpses of the violence by which they perished, by the horror they felt in being ripped from our world. Some simply horrify him. Others come for him, hurt him. And the way it's handled it's so delicately horrifying. Shamalyan makes you afraid with the simplest of single images that protrude from reality. They crash in and burn in your mind, then vanish.

So Malcolm has to make a choice. To believe Cole, which is the only thing that can save Cole. But is he strong enough? It seems his wife is falling in love with someone else; he's failed before, he'll fail again...

Now I stop relating the story. Now I have no idea who Shamalyan is, but this guy is a genius. He truly is one to watch. This script, however, calls for such a delicate touch, such subtle performances - it requires the hardest thing a director can hope to invest in a film; honest emotion. And I really think that he can pull it off. It is by no means perfect; a few scenes repeat the same emotional arcs, and a few too many scenes end in tears, but this is a tragedy...

This year we're going to be deluged with horror films, retreads of old ones that rely on CG to horrify us. In _TSS_ the most tricky effect is a single breath - when the ghosts are near the air turns cold and breath forms a tiny cloud in the air. And for all this it's more effective than a thousand walls that melt or bleed and sounds that chase around the cinema. Next week I'll tell you about _Sleepy Hollow_, Andrew Kevin Walker's script for Tim Burton's film. And for all the wicked surreal imagery none of it has the effect of this film's investment in its characters and humanity.

And to end... _TSS_ has one of the wickedest twist endings you've seen in years. To go out on a limb here, I hate twist endings; except when they're done right, and they're so rarely done right. Nothing pisses me off more than a twist ending which destroys your investment in a film, and in the past few years we've seen some horrible ones, most notably in Devil's Advocate and Fallen; I even have a problem with The Usual Suspects' ending, because it invalidates the world you've just taken part in. But _TSS_ s twist ending isn't shocking, or superbly clever. It just breaks your heart. It adds a final poignant layer to the whole thing, and fits in with the entire film as a whole; giving it greater resonance. And you won't drag that ending out of me, ever; so don't ask.

I mean I really tried, tried, not to keep reading. Six months ago I got the Matrix script and started practicing Jet Li moves so I could kick myself in the skull for reading it in advance; I was able to stop ten pages from the end. But in _TSS_ I just could not, could not stop, even though I knew I should stop. And to be honest, it didn't grip me at all at the beginning.

So please, let me know I'm not alone; Harry, send your people out and have them find out what they can about this movie. I hope I'm not alone in having been touched and awed by this; please let me know. If the trailers suck, ignore them. Because this is not a flashy movie, this is not a grab you by the balls movie, there are no action sequences...

Just the fear of being unable to realise your potential, the fear of never being able to admit your love, the fear of existence itself.

Neo phoning home...