M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB.5.  USA, 2000.  Touchstone Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, Barry Mendel Productions.  Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan.  Cinematography by Eduardo Serra.  Produced by Barry Mendel, Sam Mercer, M. Night Shyamalan.  Music by James Newton Howard.  Production Design by Larry Fulton.  Costume Design by Joanna Johnston.  Film Editing by Dylan Tichenor.  

M. Night Shyamalan must have thought the intensity in his previous classic thriller The Sixth Sense was the result of having everyone speak in a low hush from the depths of their stomachs, and boy does he ride it for all it is worth in his follow-up. Bruce Willis gives a very able performance as an aging man in an unhappy marriage who goes through the ultimate voyage of self-discovery after he is miraculously the only survivor of a horrific train crash.  Robin Wright is the long-suffering wife who longs to reconnect with him, and Samuel L. Jackson is the mysterious stranger who holds some (pretty idiotic) answers. Shyamalan’s visual style has definitely matured since the last film, but he expects too much of his audience’s patience and sense of adventure this time around. All of the “family drama” surrounding these mysterious events are uninvolving and flat.