I saw a movie this weekend in which a little boy chats with a ghost only he can see. The ghost, it seems, is troubled by the circumstances of her death and seeks the lad's help to see justice done. The kid--who is cute as a button--hides his supernatural contact from his mother, but finds a comrade for his ghostly task in a male authority figure.

        You may think I am describing "The Sixth Sense," since the similarities are striking. But in fact, I am referring to STIR OF ECHOES. The two films are very similar in concept, but differ greatly in execution. Beyond plot similarities there are also casting similarities that I find striking.

        Stir of Echoes is set in blue collar Chicago. The kid in question is Jake, played by Zachary David Cope, and the male authority figure is his father Tom, played by Kevin Bacon.

        Like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, Kevin Bacon excels in this movie, and manages to escape some dopey type casting he has fallen victim to in the past. In Stir of Echoes, Bacon plays an ordinary everyday kinda guy. He's so familiar, he's either your brother, or the brother of one of your friends. When his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) tells him she's pregnant, Tom bemoans the fact that he is so ordinary, promising her that things will get better. But we all know that before they can bet better, they're gonna get a whole lot worse. And they sure do!!!

        At a neighborhood party, Tom's sister-in-law hypnotizes him, and while he's under, tells him to open his mind a little. Later she says she doesn't know why she did it, she just thought it would be good for him. Rest assured she'll never so it again.

        Tom's mind is so open that he becomes a receiver. First he starts seeing all kinds of weird things that feel uncomfortably real to him, and down right freaky to us. The main business of the movie, then, is watching Tom learn to cope with his newly opened mind. At first he sees flashes. A broken tooth or nail. Then he sees a person. Then he sees events, but in random order, and seemingly unrelated to anything that's going on.

        About midway through the movie things start to come together for Tom, but it's not until the final scene when every piece of the puzzle falls into place. Actually the end if rather ho-hum. The real pleasure of the movie is watching the weirdness unfold, and being pretty darned scared as it does. More than once I leapt from my chair in fright. But it's an honest fear, and one that Bacon manages to make very real.

        I very much enjoyed Stir of Echoes, right until the end. For me, we could do without the pat ending. I'd rather find out what happens to Tom tomorrow and the next day. Now that's scary.

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