Reviews (656)

Fear Comes From Inside: Really Scary Film with Stylish Touch
Yesterday, on April 28, we have finally seen the theatrical release of this masterpiece in Japan, and the waiting time was very, very long. But it was worth of our patience. "The Others" is not only a chilling and scary movie; it is crafted with style and intelligence, and it is fantastic to watch the director (who is still below the age of 30!!) create this piece of art.

As you probably have known by now, beautiful Nicole Kidman plays Grace, whose children are allergic to light (and this disaease really exists, you should know). With ritual-like meticulous rules, she manages her household works, employing new servants in a huge, dreary countryhouse, which ever-hanging fogs mystriously surround. But there is (or are), she comes to know, some intruder(s) here, of which existence her children are convinced. And sooner or later, Grace comes to feel that, too.

It is a natural but unfair comparison if you point out that "The Others" resembles at some places a certain Oscar-nominated film, because the director Amenabar does it with completely different touch. I cannot tell you much, but let me say, like Hitchcock's classic "Rebecca," the heroine (and the audience) is lured inexplicably into the mystery of the old house and its past. Also using the classic frameworks of ghost stories used in the original "Haunting" (Robert Wise version, NOT THAT remake), the film makes us jumping in the seats, sending lots of chill in spine, and, moreover, it treats a universal subject of love between mother and children in a subtle fashion. On top of that, the film goes further, to make the mother Grace not exactly an ideal one for kids, and it succeeds eventually in depicting the fraility of humans -- in short, you really don't know what you think you know.

Anchored by strong and believable acting given from underrated Nicole Kidman (why did Oscar ignore her work here, preferring that musical ... well, but all right, I understand), and aided effectively by other well-cast players whose uncanny presence unnerve us greatly, "The Others" will rivet your eyes on the screen, especially when you are a connoisseur of old-fashioned horror film. Keep your eyes open when you see the details of the film: furniture, photoes, everything. Something is wrong with this house, but how and what is not clear. This bizzare sensation is another asset of the film, and you will find what you missed with repeated viewing.

For those who have enjoyed this (and I bet you did), the story is perhaps inspired by Henry James's novella "Turn of the Screw," which deals with the similar situation. You may as well read that equally well-crafted, creepy story.

Trivia: look closely at one of the old photoes of the dead: one of the three men on the bed is director Amenabar himself (and one of the others is Mateo Gil, director of Spanish film "Nadie conoce a nadie" of which music Amenabar composed, and of which star Eduardo Noriega was featured in the two previous Amenabar film in Spain, "Thesis" and "Open Your Eyes." The former one is a must-see for anyone loving blood-curdling thriller. But hey, appearing in a photo? This is exactly what Hitchcock did in one of his earlier films about a life-boat, another masterpiece about the people in a confined place !! Surely Amenabar loves his master.

"Others" Among Us
THE OTHERS is one heck of a ghost story. In the tradition of intellegent films of the genre, such as THE SIXTH SENSE and POLTERGIEST, this movie keeps you on your toes from start to finish. Grace (Nicole Kidman) awaits her husband's return from war. She and her children, who suffer from a rare medical condition, called Xeroderma Pigmentosum, (extreme sensitivity to light) live isolated from the outside world. Then, one day 3 mysterious servants, led by Bertha Mills ( Fionnula Flanagan) arrive at the door...Soon after Grace finds herself struggling to keep her children safe from strange forces as her sanity slowly slips away. This film has all the classic touches that make a good ghost story. Creaking doors, a big house isolated and poorly lit, strange noises and happenings, all helped along by a great performance from Kidman. Written and Directed by
Alejandro Amenábar, the movie is tops, where so many other recent ghost stories have failed, relying to much on dopey effects to push the story ahead (the remake of The Haunting for example).

The 2 disc DVD set is pretty good even though it all could have probably fit on one disc. The features are made up of documentaries and featurettes. The most intriguing of which, is on the aforementioned disorder, seen in the film. The still gallery includes rather typical looking photos from the film. I would have liked for a commentary track, but I know that not every DVD has to have one to be solid. Nicole Kidman makes this film more than just a story about "things that go bunp in the night" Recommended

Very Inteligent Horror Film
Another fantastic example of a new genre of smart, very well written and very well made horror movies. Had this come before Sixth Sense it would deserve a full 5 stars.

"I just feel more and more cut off from the world."
Alejandro Amenabar's "The Others" is a reminder that very good films need not be glitzy or gimmicky. Neither is an excess of special effects or action sequences required. Film is an exercise in storytelling and good films succeed in telling their story well no matter how small and quaint the film may appear to be.

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) and her two children, Nicholas (James Bentley) and Anne (Alakina Mann), live in a manor off the British coast. Three strangers arrive one day in answer to a placed advertisement for domestic help. For some strange reason, the three strangers prove to be familiar with Grace's house. Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), Lydia (Elaine Cassidy), and the gardener Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes) soon immerse themselves in the daily routine of the manor, but the mood of the house suddenly seems changed with them around. Is there something to the strangers or is Grace's imagination just getting the better of her?

"The Others" revels in its simplicity. This is a film reminiscent of an earlier era in terms of filmmaking craft but it does not at all feel like a time-displaced relic when viewed through the filter of modern sensibilities. A legitimately unsettling atmosphere is created under the deft direction of Amenabar and Kidman is granted a wonderful opportunity to put her acting talents on display. She takes full advantage of her chance to carry a film on her own and succeeds admirably. Kidman is the emotional and dramatic catalyst of the story and the film as a whole would have been far less effective had she faltered. Flanagan, Cassidy, and Sykes are also great as the sweet but creepy strangers. From the outset, we know that there is something amiss by their arrival on the scene but we cannot put our finger on it. A tip of the hat to Amenabar for keeping us in suspense until the very end. Good work all around.

A Wonderful Classy Thrill Ride
Definately one of Nicole's Best Performances this film is gripping anc chilling. The acting is great and the plot takes you for many twists and turns. This reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock movie and it will definately be remembered. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Hideous Kinky journeys back to the early 1970s to Marrakesh, that hippy mecca for everyone from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Gillies MacKinnon, the director of this movie. Here you'll find one nice but confused middle-class young woman escaping the daily grind of a drab London with her two young daughters in tow. Whereas Esther Freud's book was told from the younger girl's perspective, the film-script places Julia centre-stage as she searches for what she describes wistfully as "the annihilation of the ego."

Though fresh from her Titanic experience, Kate Winslet is no drippy hippy, bringing a refreshing feistiness to her role and looking fetching swathed in diaphanous layers. As her two daughters, Bella Riza (Bea, the wide-eyed younger one) and Carrie Mullan (Lucy, the sensible one) are brilliant discoveries--unselfconscious, charmingly quirky, and enjoying a camaraderie that belies their difference in characters. Completing the family unit is Julia's lover, the endearingly unreliable Bilal (a fiery performance from Saïd Taghmaoui). When the money runs out, their adventures begin and the resilience and practicality of the girls is contrasted throughout with the dreaminess of their mother, her sense of duty vying with her quest for self-discovery. Visually, it's a veritable feast as we're pitched from the color and cacophony of the marketplace to the dusty harshness of the mountains. And that elusive title--which is never explained in the film--is in fact a phrase coined by the girls as a term of approbation. --Harriet Smith ... Read more

Reviews (51)

Beautiful and mystical
Titanic was the first movie I saw Kate Winslet in, and while the movie really impressed me, the press surrounding it turned me off both of the lead actors.

The great cover design caused me to pick up "Hideous Kinky" in the video store on 5 seperate occasions before I finally rented it. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful adventure movies I've seen. The next day I bought the DVD.

Hideous Kinky (I still haven't figured out exactly what that means) has the patient cinematography of a foreign film, great supporting actors (including the kids), and Kate plays her naive character in such a beautiful and natural way that I now have full respect for her as an actor (a respect which was reinforced after seeing "Holy Smoke").

As for the actual DVD features, well there aren't any. The production quality is nice and crisp though... and on a movie like this, that's really the best feature.

Beautiful locations, gorgeous lighting, lovely sets, but....
Where's the story? That's the question I kept asking myself watching this visually stunning, but flawed movie.

To be fair, I guess, there IS a story. A young British mother drags her two young daughters to Morroco in search of spiritual enlightenment. That's pretty much the movie. She meets a local, rugged, Morrocan male... He likes her kids. They have no money. They travel around. Her eldest daughter wants to be normal and disagrees with the Mom's bohemian ways.

There is good acting and I liked the relationships between Kate Winslet, ... and her eldest daughter. Also there are a lot of little, sweet, scenes with the characters and their surroundings. But in the end I didn't really care for Kate's character or the choices she made. I didn't "take the journey" with her for her quest for enlightenment.

But the movie is VERY visual stunning. It was a treat just to watch it. The colors, the production design, the shots. Visual fantastic. I just wish they'd taken a little more time creating an engaging story around all this beauty.

B-

A 70s hippy movie, set in Marrakesh
Marrakesh was a famous hippy destination during those amazing hippy hears. Gillies MacKinnon, the director of Hideous Kinky, spent time here and documented the probably-at-least-partially-true story of an innocent middle-class young London woman with two daughters who goes off the deep end. Kate Winslet plays the lead role in a story narrated from the point of view of one of the girls. While their mummy goes about her business of drifting around looking for love and enlightenment, the girls shift mostly for themselves. One of the girls seems entirely willing to go along for the bumpy ride, but Lucy, the sensible one, craves tea-time, regular meals, school uniforms, and a reliable mother. Mostly set in the colorful and exotic local of central Marrakesh, Hideous Kinky is a feast of images, sound, and color - and a good depiction of the ethos of those oh so confusing years.

Beautiful and Intriguing
Julia (Kate Winslet) is a mother in search of enlightenment and religious discovery (Sufism) -- with her two lovely daugthers, she journeys to exotic Morocco to find what she is searching for. This movie is very well directed, and the performances of Winslet, Said Taghmaoui (Bilal), Bella Rizza (Bea), and Carrie Mullan (Lucy), are extraordinary. For some, Julia will seem to be the worst of the self-absorbed, selfish, deluded, irresponsible mothers of all time. But, as a single mother myself, I truly felt a kinship with her in wanting to give her children a sense of adventure. For all of the characters, adventure is a great teacher bestowing extravagant gifts memorable enough to last a lifetime.

SWHippyF w/ 2 daughters Seeks Spiritual Center
Hideous Kinky is a nice film not trying to be a great British epic. It is a smaller work about a young mother who insists on dragging her daughters around North Africa, mostly Morocco, to find her spiritual center. She is not fully blessed with the maturity to understand how she is throwing her family off center. The cinematography captures the terrain of land and people beautifully. Kate Winslet and the kids create the wonderful illusion of a clueless hippy family that graces and jinxes Bilal's life. I felt like the invisible 3rd daughter whining that I want to go back to England and go to school, but then crying when it is time to repatriate. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh! I want to stay! Bilal has to be relieved to send me back, too. I would just like to know how I can send him a postcard.

I would pair it with the BBC series ÒFlame Trees of Thika;Ó the episode of Absolutely Fabulous where Edina, Patsy & Saffy go to Morroco; ÒLaurel Canyon;Ó ÒAlmost Famous;Ó and ÒThe Sheltering Sky.Ó ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A acting miracle by the young Leelee Sobieski!!!
I saw this film in a small art house and didn't know what to expect. The movie is long, but it's one of those films that you sit through and can't realize the time and don't care. The young Leelee Sobieski character (Chane) was a smartly written role that only she could pull off. The film starts out with american ex-patriots who spend there time in France while writer Kris Kristofferson and family spend time as discontented americans partying and finding culture in there life. The relationship of the entire family is a telling portrait of people looking for something to cling to and realizing that they have each other. They grow; and we grow with them through the looking glass of the dark theather that takes us away and we want to stay!!!

Leelee Sobieski is my fav!
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries is a beautiful depiction of the different stages of a family's life through the eyes of the daughter Charlotte-Ann (Channe). The movie takes place, for the most part in France, where the young girl first experiences gaining an adopted little brother. From there, during her early teenage years she meets a character named Francis Fortescue who loves the opera and becomes Channe's best friend. The father (Chris Christopherson) is having heart trouble and decides to move the family back to the US. Both children handle this change in different ways, the adopted son (Billy) becomes a couch potato and antisocial. Channe reacts by starting to drink, have sex, etc... I won't spoil the ending but let me just say that this is a great traditional movie about how close a family be and how people can solve their problems by sticking together. I have to admit, however, the reason I gave this film such a high rating is because Leelee Sobieski who plays (Channe) is my favorite actress and she is awesome! The movie as a whole is also one of the best I've seen.

strong characters, somewhat sleepy story
I watched this movie for the second time (I think) last night with my husband and daughter. The R rating is somewhat extreme for this movie. Aside from Kris Kristofferson's characters rampant swearing, this movie could easily be rated PG-13 and then only for frank discussions about sex between the father and daughter. It could actually be considered a good "coming-of-age" movie for liberal-minded families, though even those who consider themselves liberal might disagree with the father's philosophy on life and his advice for his fifteen-year-old daughter. Of course, if you view the story and follow the plot, you might feel that he was compelled to be deliberate and forthright with her. Unlike many fathers, he takes the time to interact with his daughter and have heart-to-heart talks. This father also takes the time to cultivate his relationship with his wife. Bill and Marcella obviously have a very passionate relationship, but alcohol use is very prevalent as well. In any case, the movie is intriguing. I especially enjoyed the young seven-year-old Channe played by a beautiful young girl (I don't know her name). The scene in the treehouse with the young French actor is realistic enough to be disturbing and frightening. Channe's transition into adolescence (now portrayed by LeeLee Sobieski) is very believable. Her relationship with Francis, also an American, is so frustrating because both characters are so realistic. You feel the anguish that Channe experiences having a friend whom most young people would shun, and over time, Channe would choose to shun as well. Francis is one of those people whom you want to like because he's interesting to be around, but unfortunately, he's also so self-deprecating and self-absorbed and whiny that you can't help but dislike him at the same time. This relationship between Channe and the effeminate, opera-loving Francis might be enough to turn off many viewers.
Channe's adopted brother Billy remains an intriguing enigma throughout the movie and certainly his character could have been fleshed out more. What we gather is that he's sensitive and kind to Channe, but never seems to make friends. In France, we never see him even interact at school, or even grow into adolescence at home. If this is an autobiographical movie, then one could at times only wonder if Channe and her brother lead isolated lives within the family. There are moments of connectedness within her family that do dispel this, however. When Billy arrives with his family in the United States, he seems unhappy and out of place right from the start. There is the slightest hint that he might be quietly gay, and therefore somewhat repulsed by Francis' blatant personality. We experience a moment of unrequited connection between him and Channe's American boyfriend.
One could find so much to explore within this movie- the interracial relationship between Candida (their Spanish or Portuguese maid who, by the way, has a lovely, siren-like singing voice) and her black boyfriend, Candida's fear of commitment and total devotion to Channe, devotion that leaves her lacking the ability to create her own life. Barbra Hershey's portrayal of Marcella, a fun-loving wife and mother with no apparent career aspirations,who turns to alcohol to soften life in Paris as an American in the 60's where it's obvious she and her husband and friends often felt out of place. What's disquieting is that she experiences the same feeling of being an outcast initially when they move back to the United States.
Well worth viewing, though some like my husband might watch the movie and ultimately comment "What's the point?" (and rightfully so, since everyone is entitled to their own opinion). This is not entertainment for entertainment's sake. It is an exploration of relationships.

A Waste of Time
This movie is full of nonsense! One of the worse I have seen so far!

A Waste of Time
The movie is artful, I give it that. However, the critics must have been really drunk when they rated this movie. It is full of nonsense and is looooong winding. One of the worse movies I have ever seen. ... Read more