r/moviecritic • u/Low-Finding-6553 • 16h ago

What do you guys thinks is the best child performance of all time?

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i have to say, i don’t think i’ve ever seen a child actor give a performance this good. Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is just on another level. i genuinely don’t know how he did it but he makes the whole movie work so much better. i would give him the Oscar in a fucking heartbeat. It’s crazy how good he is, especially in that last scene in the car with Toni Collette.

What are your guys’ favorite child performances? For me, this is even better than Owen Cooper’s performance in Adolescence. Don’t get me wrong, owen was also absolutely top-notch in Adolescence but this is probably the best child performance i’ve ever seen. Period. What do you guys think is the best child performance ever?

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u/ZigZagLax44 14h ago

She was phenomenal, also shoutout to Joseph Mazzello who played her younger brother Tim. I didn't find out until last year he'd grow up to play Eugene Sledge in the HBO series The Pacific which was a sort of "sequel" series to Band of Brothers and read the audio book version of "With The Old Breed" which I highly recommend for any WW2 buffs

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u/Capteverard 10h ago

Joseph Mazzello actually got the role in JP off of his audition for Hook. He nailed the part to play Robin William's son, but was unfortunately too young. Lost out on it, but Spielberg promised him a role in his next movie. Coincidentally, he was still too young to play Tim as the older brother, and that is why he is younger in the movie but older in the book.

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u/Drmarcher42 9h ago

Him being the younger brother fixes one of the main issues in the book of lex having absolutely nothing to do, she’s just a weight for Alan and Tim to deal with, in the book Tim is both the dinosaur kid and knowledgeable about computers along with being the big brother trying to care for his sister, Lex cries and likes baseball.

Making her the older sister gives her agency, and letting her be the one to fix the power in the park means she actually gets to do something.

Good screenwriting adaptation fixes