Chapter 408: CH : 397 The Critics Kill it Before

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****

Ben glanced around the LA, his smile turning crooked. "This town’s screwed up, man. It’ll cheer for you on Friday, stab you in the back on Monday, then invite you to the after-party like nothing happened."

He shrugged. "Everybody’s selling something. Their talent. Their loyalty. Their reputation. Most times themselves."

Ben snorted. "But the money... the fame... the power... that’s one hell of a drug."

He looked back at Matt."Without those? This place would empty out overnight."

—

Four days had passed since The Others opened nationwide.

No one at three studios was sleeping well.

Not after what had happened.

At the El Capitan premiere, most critics had written the film off before the first weekend had even begun. Review after review dismissed it as another supernatural thriller living in the shadow of *The Sixth Sense*. Some praised the performances, but many complained about its deliberate pace, insisting audiences would grow impatient long before the final reveal.

The audience disagreed.

By Wednesday morning, *The Others* had taken in an astonishing $29 million domestically.

The phones hadn’t stopped ringing.

Word of mouth spread far faster than any newspaper column ever could. One moviegoer became five. Five became fifty. Packed evening screenings turned into sold-out weekends as people urged friends and family to see the film before someone spoiled the ending.

Inside Hollywood, everyone understood what was happening.

The critics had lost the opening round.

The audience had won.

Miramax, Meyers Pictures, and Cruise/Wagner Productions wasted no time feeding the momentum. Television spots multiplied overnight. Fresh newspaper advertisements proudly quoted every favourable review they could find. Cast interviews appeared across entertainment programs. The marketing campaign pivoted almost instantly—from convincing people to buy a ticket to reminding them they were about to miss the year’s biggest conversation.

The trade papers followed just as quickly.

Three days of skepticism quietly became today’s measured praise.

Watching the tidal-wave public reaction and soaring daily grosses, the media did what they always do when caught on the wrong side of a hit: they frantically backtracked.

They were a bunch of spineless weasels chasing the heat. Suddenly, a flood of more positive reviews surfaced in the morning papers, trying to reframe their initial doubt as "cautious optimism."

Reviews that had dismissed the film returned with fresh analyses, suddenly discovering virtues they had somehow overlooked only days earlier. Others softened their original verdicts, insisting they had always believed the picture would find its audience.

Hollywood has always been like that.

Success had an extraordinary talent for improving people’s memories.

> The Los Angeles Times: "*The Others* is a masterclass in restraint, a psychological ghost story that understands atmosphere is often more terrifying than spectacle. Alejandro Amenábar’s vision has found an equally gifted interpreter in Marvin Meyers, whose adaptation refuses to insult the audience’s intelligence with cheap shocks. Instead, it rewards patience with one of the year’s most haunting finales. Hollywood may have been looking for another *The Sixth Sense*. What it received was something altogether more mature."

> USA Today: "*The Others* appears deceptively intimate, unfolding almost entirely inside a secluded mansion with only a handful of principal characters. Yet every hallway, every curtain, every flickering candle seems to hide another secret. The young cast, Marvin Meyers and Lindsay Lohan especially, display remarkable emotional control far beyond their years. But the revelation belongs to Nicole Kidman. Her performance shifts effortlessly between icy composure, maternal desperation, and psychological collapse without ever losing its emotional truth. This is the strongest work of her career."

> The New York Daily News: "*The Others* earns every scream by refusing to chase them. Marvin Meyers once again demonstrates an uncanny understanding of suspense, patiently tightening the screws until the final revelation forces audiences to reconsider everything they’ve just witnessed. Few theaters have seen this many stunned moviegoers remain seated through the end credits."

> Variety: "Four days ago, industry insiders questioned whether Nicole Kidman could carry a supernatural thriller on her own. Four days later, the marketplace has answered with unusual clarity. Strong weekday holds suggest *The Others* is developing the rare commodity studios crave but cannot manufacture: genuine word of mouth. Kidman’s performance, once viewed as the production’s greatest commercial risk, is rapidly becoming its greatest asset."

> Entertainment Weekly: "Forget the premature comparisons to *The Sixth Sense*. *The Others* succeeds because it isn’t trying to imitate Marvin Meyers’ previous triumph. It’s quieter. Sadder. More interested in grief than gimmicks. And at its center stands Nicole Kidman, delivering the kind of richly layered performance awards voters have overlooked far too often."

> Premiere Magazine: "*Hollywood has spent years insisting Nicole Kidman was all elegance and no box-office muscle. Perhaps the industry was asking the wrong question. Instead of wondering whether she could carry a movie, maybe it should have wondered whether anyone had finally given her one worthy of carrying."

> Chicago Tribune: "*The Others* proves that audiences haven’t grown tired of ghost stories. They’ve simply grown tired of lazy ones. Marvin Meyers demonstrates surprising confidence by allowing silence, uncertainty, and dread to do the work explosions never could."

> The Boston Globe: "There is remarkable discipline in *The Others*. Every performance serves the story rather than competing with it. Nicole Kidman, however, achieves something extraordinary. She creates a woman who is at once frightening, sympathetic, stubborn, and heartbreakingly fragile. The result lingers long after the theater lights return."

> Ms. Magazine: "For years, Nicole Kidman’s extraordinary beauty has too often overshadowed serious discussions of her craft. *The Others* should finally change that conversation. Grace is not a damsel waiting for rescue, nor is she reduced to being someone’s wife, someone’s love interest, or someone’s reward. She is frightened, stubborn, deeply flawed, fiercely protective, and heartbreakingly human. She is a complicated woman struggling against fear, guilt, motherhood, and impossible choices.

Perhaps the film’s greatest surprise is that this character was written by a thirteen-year-old boy. At an age when Hollywood too often teaches young male writers to confuse strength with invulnerability, Marvin Meyers has written a woman whose courage comes from perseverance rather than perfection. He understands something many seasoned screenwriters still miss—that women are not symbols or plot devices. They are as contradictory, resilient, frightened, loving, and complicated as the men standing beside them.

Whether that sensitivity comes from his upbringing, his willingness to listen, or the remarkable women who have shaped his life, we cannot say. But we would be remiss not to acknowledge Linda Meyers, who has raised a son capable of seeing women as complete human beings rather than convenient stereotypes. Hollywood could use more stories like *The Others*. More importantly, it could use more writers willing to tell them."

Online, the conversation had already escaped the critics.

America Online message boards filled with warnings.

> AOL Movies Forum: "DO NOT let anyone spoil the ending. Seriously. We made our whole office promise not to talk about it until everyone had seen it."

> IMDb User Review: "Went because of *The Sixth Sense*. Stayed because Nicole Kidman absolutely blew me away. I never understood why people said she couldn’t carry a movie. They owe her an apology."

> Yahoo! Movies Talk: "Saw it Sunday. Took my parents back Monday night. My sister is going tomorrow. Haven’t seen this kind of word-of-mouth since the last one."

> Usenet (rec.arts.movies.current-films): "The audience applauded after the final scene. That’s the first time I’ve witnessed that outside *Saving Private Ryan*. Don’t read another review. Just go."

The headlines kept coming.

Each edition grew bolder than the last.

Yesterday’s "surprise success" became today’s "must-see phenomenon."

Yesterday’s skepticism quietly disappeared beneath larger type, brighter headlines, and glowing reassessments.

Hollywood hadn’t changed its mind because the film had changed.

Hollywood had changed its mind because the audience had.

In the Beverly Hills estate kitchen, Nicole Kidman sat alone at the marble island, the morning papers spread before her.

For the first time in what felt like months, she found herself smiling without forcing it.

Every review praised her performance.

Some loved the film. Some hated it. Almost every one of them argued about it.

She reached for another newspaper, unable to stop rereading the same paragraphs. The critics couldn’t agree on *The Others*, but they all seemed to agree on one thing.

Her name. Not Tom’s. Hers.

The thought alone made something inside her loosen.

The mansion remained as quiet as ever.

Too quiet. No footsteps upstairs. No voice carrying through the halls.

No sign that Tom had even slept there the night before. She looked toward the empty chair across from her.

Months ago, that silence would have swallowed her whole. Now it merely reminded her how little of this house had ever felt like home.

Her mood was different from the despair of yesterday, and entirely unrecognizable from the depression she had felt a week prior.

Her fingers drifted absentmindedly over the USA Today headline.

’Maybe...’

’Maybe I should tell someone.’

The thought surprised her.

There was only one person she wanted to call.

Without meaning to, her mind wandered back to that first dinner.

She had walked into the private restaurant convinced her career was about to collapse.

She remembered barely touching the food. Remembered talking far too much.

The words had spilled out of her before she could stop them—her fears about the film, about the reviews, about *Eyes Wide Shut*, about becoming another actress people quietly stopped calling.

Marvin hadn’t interrupted once. He had simply listened.

When she finally ran out of words, he reached across the table.

His hand settled over hers.

Warm. Steady. Not possessive.

Just... there.

"Nicole." His voice had been so calm it almost irritated her. "You’ve spent too long listening to people whose job is guessing."

She had laughed bitterly.

"They’re usually right."

"Sometimes."

"But not this time."

She remembered searching his face for even the smallest crack of uncertainty.

There hadn’t been one.

"The critics aren’t your audience. They’re talking to each other. The audience is talking to their friends. They’re the people who buy tickets."

She frowned. "And if the critics kill it before then?"

"They won’t." He’d smiled as though discussing tomorrow’s weather. "They’re already doing us a favour."

She stared at him. "A favour?"

"They can’t stop arguing. The more they argue... ...the more people want to find out who’s right."

Nicole remembered shaking her head. "You make it sound so simple."

"It isn’t. It just isn’t hopeless."

She hadn’t realised until much later that it was the first hopeful thing anyone had said to her in weeks.

Then he’d given her hand the slightest squeeze.

"Go home. Sleep. Tomorrow you’ll wake up to better numbers."

"And if I don’t?"

"Then we’ll solve the next problem tomorrow."

He hadn’t promised perfection. He’d promised he wouldn’t let her face it alone. That simple difference had stayed with her.

The box-office reports had proved him right.

But that wasn’t what lingered in her memory.

It was how peaceful she’d felt walking out of that restaurant.

She hadn’t felt that peaceful in months after Principal photography. Since that evening, she’d found excuses to meet almost every night.

Sometimes over dinner. Sometimes over coffee after work. Sometimes they talked about the film for hours.

Sometimes they barely mentioned it. Instead they spoke about books. Australia. New Zealand. Old films. Music. The absurdity of Hollywood.

She found herself laughing more than she had in a very long time.

There was no pretending. No carefully rehearsed answers. No wondering whether every sentence would be repeated to someone else.

Around Marvin, conversation seemed strangely... easy.

Nicole lowered the newspaper into her lap.

She realised she was smiling again. Not because the reviews were good. Not even because the box office had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

For the first time in years, there was someone she caught herself waiting to see before the day was over.

That realization should have frightened her.

Instead...

It filled a place inside her she hadn’t realized had been empty for so long.

Nicole lowered the newspaper onto the marble countertop and closed her eyes.

A warm flush climbed slowly up her neck.

Lately, the nights had become dangerous.

The moment she fell asleep in the silent bedroom, her dreams found him almost without fail.

Sometimes they were talking over dinner. Sometimes they were laughing over nothing.

Sometimes... The beautiful, inappropriate, pink-tinted dreams. Dreams of being consumed entirely by him.

She opened her eyes with her heart racing, the memory lingering long after the dream itself had faded.

She drew the collar of her silk robe a little tighter around herself, though the morning was already warm.

It didn’t help.

Last night returned to her in perfect detail.

The jazz club had been tucked away behind an unmarked entrance, hidden from photographers and curious eyes. Soft saxophone music drifted through the room while conversations dissolved beneath amber light.

****

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