The Others (VHS, 2004)

By golly, I'm starting to have a collection of Nicole Kidman's films that I actually like alot!

Grace (Nicole Kidman), is the mother of two severely photophobic children, Anne (the older) & Nicolas (the younger). They live alone together in a very eerie, isolated mansion just afterthe end of WWII (1945ish). It's quite a burden on this young & attractive mother to keep the sunlight out of every room her children pass through or stay in. She walks their home closing drapes & locking doors in fear of sunlight. Plus, Grace has to keep up a huge estate by herself. She's doing so with hope that her war veteran husband will return to this home & to her.

After writing an ad in the newspaper for servants, 3 appear on the doorstep. When Grace answers the door, she believes they have come to answer the ad to work maintaining her home. The problem is, Grace hadn't placed the ad in the paper yet. Instead, the unusual trio claim to be former tenants of the mansion; but they hide their alterior motives.

When Grace's little girl, Anne, keeps talking to what her Catholic home-schooling mother believes is a child's fantasy playmate, Nicolas, her little brother becomes scared to death. Both children claim that there's another little boy living in their house. They can hardly be disbelieved by their spiritual mother because of the strange sounds she hears that indicate something or someone is hiding & dwelling inside of their home.

The interesting point is that the 'nanny' has no difficulty at all believing the children. She & the children keep that a secret from Grace. As in the classics "Gaslight, with Ingrid Bergman, & "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte," with Bette Davis, Grace (Kidman) finds she's in a very similar sort of situation where inanimate objects become animated, voices haunt her & she begins growing more & more skeptical of reality.

The film is a tension building, haunted house, ghost thriller. Kidman gives a first rate dramatic performance based upon nothing but her remarkable acting ability & not her good looks! She is comparable to Bergman & Davis as an actor, so that's why I previously mentioned them both.

Depending upon the maturity of the children who watch this PG rated film, it's one that will linger in nightmares, in the shadows & leave parents with a heap of questions to answer. Adults should find it clever, suspenseful & extremely well cast, set, directed & acted. It's got a unique plot & surprise ending that is not horrific or terrifying; but it is climactic~