Jersey, the Channel Islands
1945
A screaming, terrified-looking Grace Stewart, played by an eerily put-together Nicole Kidman, awakens from a frightful dream (?) in the opening scene of Alejandro Amenábar’s wonderfully gothic 2001 thriller. Introduced in the vein of a spooky European fairy tale, The Others begins bracingly and basically doesn’t quit for all of its perfectly crafted 100 or so minutes. It’s a ghost story with ghostly storytelling beats from a pre-9/11 world of filmmaking. Released in the halcyon days of late summer 2001, The Others arrived with a pretty sterling production-distribution team at its back, despite its relatively slim ($17 million) budget: [Tom] Cruise-[Paula] Wagner Productions, Dimension Films and Studio Canal distributors. Having already announced—and by then finalized—a bombshell divorce from Cruise, Kidman appeared to have quite a bit of her own star power riding on the Cruise-produced film. Fortunately for her, The Others turned out to be an unqualified success…
Kidman, styled elegantly as a proto Grace Kelly in a ’40s Hitchcockian mode, brings a brittle, broken air to the proceedings of a haunted widow (?) living with her two light-sensitive children in a darkened, fog-enshrouded manor. When three mysterious strangers show up one day on their doorstep, purportedly having worked in the past at the island manor, strange phenomena seemingly begin to occur, including (but not limited to) apparitions and supernatural events that slowly convince Grace her house truly is haunted. Effectively playing opposite both child actors and industry veterans (particularly a sensationally destabilizing Fionnula Flanagan), Kidman arguably had never been better. She commands the screen in moments big and small, interacting (?) with her shell-shocked husband and ultimately revealing a deep, dark twist that upends all of the preceding spookiness. It’s a marvelous, masterful performance.
2001 was—and this can’t be overstated—the year of Nicole Kidman. Amid the sturm und drang of her personal life, Kidman reached new artistic—and career box-office—heights, starting with Baz Luhrmann’s seminal, Cannes-premiering musical sensation, Moulin Rouge!; followed quickly by an even bigger, summer-bookending smash with The Others. The now ex-Mrs. Cruise had reached the pinnacle of Hollywood movie stardom on her own merits. It was a heady time for Kidmania.
She ironically looks more like Grace Kelly than she did in GRACE OF MONACO.
Besides being a sleeper hit (to the tune of $96 million domestic; $210 million worldwide), The Others also was roundly praised and widely lauded. Kidman, for her part, was nominated for Best Actress at both the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, not to mention honors from various international and critics groups (including Actress of the Year, courtesy the London Film Critics’ Circle). One can imagine a scenario where Kidman easily would’ve gotten Oscar-nominated for The Others, barring the competing Moulin Rouge! and the Academy’s prohibition against double nominations in the same category. It would’ve been an entirely justified double nom, in my opinion.
A prestige horror queen for the ages.
What is especially gratifying about Kidman’s summer of 2001, aside from her delivering two excellent, *very* different performances, is her culmination into a major movie star—arguably the *ultimate* movie star—of the aughts. Only a year later, she would go on to win an Oscar (for The Hours), reaching her apex in Hollywood and, thankfully, continuing to do superlative work to this day in film, TV and theater. It’s her legacy as auteurs' muse (see also: Birth, Dogville, etc.), daring actor and—improbably—prestige horror scream queen, however, that sticks with me the most; The Others being a sterling example of her daredevil commitment to character creation that sets her apart from peers.
Check out The Others’ gorgeous recent Criterion Collection edition. The film is also available to rent and buy on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, and YouTube.
Previously in the Nicole Kidman TFE Tribute:
- Introductiom (1983-1989) - Early Australian films
- Billy Bathgate (1991) – her first Golden Globe nomination!
- Malice (1993) - when Kidman met Sorkin
- To Die For (1995) - her first Golden Globe win!
- The Portrait of a Lady (1996) - a Campion experiment
- Practical Magic (1998) - comfort food cinema
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)- Kubrick. Cruise. Kidman.
- Moulin Rouge! (2001) - her first Oscar nomination!
From ghostly horror to existential terrors, the next stop in our Nicole Kidman Tribute has that Oscar glow about it. The Hours is upon us.