Others
You like spoilers? Good. I have some.
Ms. A invites to watch "Others", with the ever beautiful Ms. Kidman in the role of the overwhelmed mother in a post-war Britain. Carefully created atmosphere, with sensible explanations and credible actors. Too bad that in our era of shrinks and Prozac, the Hitchcock deviations and obsessions are easily modified with a little bit of chemistry, a simple pill to avoid responsibility and ghosts.
But of course, Ms. Kidman lacks this option, so it is left to us, the audience, to busily psychoanalyze the characters, and concluding a mania for her, split personality for the kid, and PTSD for the husband.
And of course, we all have seen movies that have that, and that is precisely the elegance of this film, that it takes all those elements that made us suspicious - because we all saw those movies and their cheap remakes - and presents them on a new light, you know, as if these were not constructs to deceive, but the truth.
Midway through the film you guess the its conclusion, again thanks to the use of classic movie snippets that filter here and there: The fog, the Kurosawa soldier coming from the war, the impossibility to leave the house etc. All those elements combine with the too obvious mission of the three servants, and give the plot away.
However, even after you expect that, even after confirming that suspicion regarding the true nature of the inhabitants of the house and their mission, there is something that comes forward as completely unexpected: The previous to last scene, where the mother embraces her kids and confesses - or realizes - what she made, finally acknowledges herself and her situation, that is a warm scene, one in which it is easy to empathize with the mother, or the suffering, and some kind of hope.
Of course, superb acting. Ms. Kidman is talented, bringing to her role deep structure, from the haughty upper class dame to the crumbling guilty woman.
Exquisite acting.
We could go on, thinking about this movie as a muffled voice to our own desperation, when out of spite, or fear, we see ourselves forced to accept our situation - that which we fight with tooth and nail, and the abysm in which we fall when denying reality. Somehow, this film doesn't give itself to that sensibility.