Director’s restraint makes `The Sixth Sense’ more effective

THE SIXTH SENSE, written and directed by N. Night Shyamalan. Running time: 106 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The very best thing about N. Night Shyamalan’s terrific film “The Sixth Sense” is its restraint, which shows across the board in its tight script, solid directing, strong performances, and those few, yet extremely effective moments when Shyamalan chooses to frighten his audience with the paranormal.

Satisfying on many levels, the film recalls in structure and in form some of the best horror films of the 1970s, particularly “The Omen,” “The Exorcist,” “The Changeling” and “The Legacy.” Just as in those films, “Sense” gives evil an opportunity to roam along the fringes of a well-developed story before allowing that evil to spread its wings at center stage.

After Jan Du Bont’s debacle “The Haunting” went all-out in an effort to scare us, it’s nice to see a director willing to hold back.

But what’s even better about this film is Bruce Willis’ surprisingly good performance as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist who gradually comes to understand things about himself through his relationship with Cole Sear (Joel Osment), a young boy who can literally see the walking dead.

Willis is very good here; at last, he has toned down his macho act and seems human because of it. With Toni Collette (“Muriel’s Wedding”) in a breakout role as Cole’s deeply anguished mother, “The Sixth Sense” has a strong sense of what makes a sophisticated horror film work. Grade: A-

DICK, directed by Andrew Fleming, written by Fleming and Sheryl Longin. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Andrew Fleming’s “Dick” is a weak and unfunny political satire about Richard Nixon that’s every bit as disappointing as the defamed president himself.

The problem with “Dick” is that it dumbs down its comedy; there’s nothing bright or funny to recommend here. Unlike the excellent film “Election,” which skewered politics on the high school (and human) level, “Dick” fails to say anything meaningful about politics on the presidential level; indeed, its satire simply isn’t sharp.

In its boring attempt to satirize the questions surrounding Deep Throat and the whole Nixon nightmare, it imagines Nixon (Dan Hedaya) as a bumbling buffoon who hires two tittering teen-age girls (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) to walk his dog, Checkers. When they do in this sour take on “All the President’s Men,” they unwittingly become Dick’s downfall — and, in their own cloying way, this film’s downfall as well. Grade: D-

Christopher Smith’s “The Week in Rewind” appears each Thursday in the scene. Each Tuesday on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today” and “News Center Tonight,” he appears in Cinema Center.