Academy abuzz over Kidman in ‘The Others’

In Theaters

“The Others.” Written and directed by Alejandro Amenabar. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13.

On the strength of its script, its direction and its performances, Alejandro Amenabar’s “The Others” manages to rise above the recent melodramas swirling around Nicole Kidman’s life and stand on its own.

When you think about it, that’s a remarkable feat, especially considering the hammering Kidman has taken in the tabloids since her headlining split from her husband, Tom Cruise – a man who not only produced “The Others,” but whose divorce from Kidman became final on the very day the film hit theaters.

Hitting back hard, Kidman delivers a solid performance, one already garnering buzz for Academy consideration. Imagine Kidman’s triumph should she win the award for Best Actress. Not only would it serve as Hollywood’s collective slap across Tom Cruise’s face (as often as he’s been nominated, he’s never won the big award himself), but Kidman would become the ultimate Hollywood ex-wife – one with an Academy Award of her own thanks in large part to her ex-husband.

At the very least, she’ll get the nomination, if only because Hollywood is so twisted, it would never deny itself the pleasure of witnessing the ugliness that nomination will ignite.

In “The Others,” Kidman is Grace, a gorgeous young aristocrat reminiscent of Grace Kelly who’s living alone with her two children in a sprawling Victorian mansion on Britain’s Channel Island of Jersey. The year is 1945, Grace’s husband (Christopher Eccleston) hasn’t returned from World War II and is feared dead, and her children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), are suffering from a disease that makes them fatally susceptible to light.

Fastidious and grim, her lean body sewn tightly into haute couture, Grace keeps the mansion in almost total darkness, shutting out the daylight by blocking the windows with heavy curtains, and protecting her children by locking them away in one of the mansion’s 50 shadowy rooms. It’s a wonderful setup for the macabre, but one whose success demands that little more be revealed here.

Recalling Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” Peter Medak’s “The Changeling” and M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense,” “The Others” is an old fashioned ghost story that understands the conventions of the genre and uses them well. It doesn’t rely on cheap thrills to generate tension and fear – its utter lack of special effects is one of its greatest strengths – but its ability to surprise will depend on the level of the audience’s sophistication.

Indeed, there will be those who will delight in Amenabar’s ending, and others who will see it coming long before the final reel. One of the marks of a great horror film is the ability to keep everyone guessing. As good as “The Others” is, it falls just short of that.

Grade: B+

On Video and DVD

“Enemy at the Gates.” Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Written by Annaud and Alain Godard. 131 minutes. Rated R.

Jean-Jacques Annaud’s great-looking World War II movie, “Enemy at the Gates,” is so disinterested in its characters, it should have been called “Enigma at the Gates.”

Working from a script he co-wrote with Alain Godard, Annaud offers audiences a sometimes harrowing depiction of the Battle of Stalingrad. But since he’s more interested in capturing the guts and glitz of war than he is in keeping his characters out of the murky trenches of stereotype, his film ultimately lacks the soul and narrative pull it needed to succeed.

The film follows loosely the real-life story of Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), a crack-shot shepherd from the Ural Mountains who’s sent to the frontlines of Stalingrad, somehow survives a ferocious battle against German troops, and then meets – atop a pile of rotting corpses – the Russian political officer who will forever change his life.

On orders from Nikita Kruschev (Bob Hoskins), the officer, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), is in need of a hero who will inspire and give hope to the exhausted Russian troops. Choosing Vassili, Danilov turns the man’s unprecedented marksmanship and bravery into fodder for front-page news and radio propaganda.

Realizing that it’s just this sort of inspiration that can turn the tide of a war, the Germans send in their own sniper (Ed Harris) to eliminate Vassili. The result is a film less interested in the Battle of Stalingrad than it is in becoming a game of cat-and-mouse between two gifted marksmen we never come to know.

Grade: C

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.