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90An elegantly crafted entertainment, balanced between the psychological and the supernatural, that gets extra credit for not relying on computer effects.
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90Only some bumpy, arid passages in the script keep The Others out of the master class occupied by the likes of "The Sixth Sense" and, my favorite, 1961's "The Innocents."
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90This is one scary movie, not because we see ghosts or monsters, but because Kidman makes us feel her fear as our own.
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90Though Kidman doesn't hesitate to make Grace high-strung and as tightly wound as they come, she also projects vulnerability and courage when they're called for. It's an intense, involving performance, and it dominates and energizes a film that would be lost without it.
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90A luxuriously old-fashioned star vehicle custom-fit to its topliner's strengths, which come across to sensational effect.
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90It's the atmospheric sideshow that earns the highest marks.
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89A spare, discomfiting score and uniformly excellent performances, and you have a quiet little masterpiece of dark and chilling beauty.
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88A fiendishly subtle horror movie, a goosebump-inducing exercise in suspense that uses your own imagination to scare you silly.
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88The most sophisticated and satisfying ghost story on film since "The Sixth Sense."
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80Some moviegoers are bound to take issue with the trick, "Sixth Sense"-style ending (or cynically see it coming), but The Others is mostly spooky fun, and a strong calling card for Amenabar.
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80A minor-key ghost story with major jolts.
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80You can't take your eyes off Ms. Kidman; she has never played a role with more focused energy.
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80A tantalizing spine-tingler.
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80If you like being scared, you should have fun. Bring a date to hold hands with.
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75A classic haunted-house story enshrouded in fog and steeped in portentous atmosphere. It gives you a case of the creeps oh-so slowly, then hits you with a clever, mind-warping way of saying, "Boo!"
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75The suspense is as tingly as jalapenos on the tongue.
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75The gimmicks, in the end, are too arbitrary to tie together in a memorably haunting fashion, though they do culminate in a Big Twist, a nifty one that almost -- but not quite -- makes you want to see the movie again.
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75There are hints of madness in all the characters, and it gets creepier and more surreal as it goes along until it finally comes to a showstopping climax that took me completely by surprise and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight.
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70The icy reserve that sometimes stands in the way of Kidman's expressive gifts here becomes the foundation of her most emotionally layered performance to date.
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63In drawing out his effects, Amenabar is a little too confident that style can substitute for substance. As our suspense was supposed to be building, our impatience was outstripping it.
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63Beautiful to behold but lacking in any kind of palpable dread or suspense.
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63Kidman gets kudos for giving the enterprise a touch of class, while the film gives the studio's library a rare pedigreed addition.
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63Has everything you want in a supernatural thriller except thrills.
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60Isn't much more than a proficient gothic mystery with a final twist that offers a satisfying little frisson before you start counting how many times it's been used before.
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60The payoff matters at least as much as the setup, and this story's secret is way too easy to guess.
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50This is a subdued and sometimes subtle exercise in ghostly doings, going against the horror-movie grain by relying on quietude and understatement.
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50The Others is great as a collection of acknowledgments, but a ghost story made of a bunch of ghoulish thank-yous isn't that haunting.
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40The big surprise is so obvious that it makes the deliberate pacing seem painfully slow, and Kidman's prissy accent and tight-lipped performance are more than a little grating.
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38What Amenabar offers here is an unconvincing, pretentiously artsy pastiche of just about every hoary old gothic thriller you can think of.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 48 out of 52
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Mixed: 3 out of 52
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Negative: 1 out of 52
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GlenM10