Having built an impressive body of work playing a broad spectrum of wise-cracking alpha males, Bruce Willis gave a quiet and nuanced performance as a child psychologist who takes on as a patient a nine-year-old boy suffering from anxiety, social withdrawal, and unexplainable injuries. Dr. Crowe takes a special interest in Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), even as his marriage begins to unravel — the tragic consequence of a violent attack by an ex-patient of his (who once exhibited the very same symptoms Crowe now observes in Cole). Determined to “save” this new patient, Crowe earns the boy’s trust and eventually learns of his disturbing ability to “see dead people.” Willis and Osment are terrific as the movie’s two lost and lonely souls. The movie’s famous final twist (which we won’t reveal here in fairness to the eight people who haven’t seen the movie) delivered a thrill both shocking and poignant.
