Omniscient...But Not

At first glance, we think we're getting a pretty sweeping view of Cole's and Malcolm's lives. We're in Malcolm's house, then we're following him around on the street, then we're in Cole's house watching him have breakfast with his mom, then we're at his school. It seems like we have access to everything that's happening.

It's a trick.

All that "access" to the characters and their lives is just lulling us into a false sense of security. Sure, we do learn a lot about the characters and their lives from our hopscotching around their world, but Shyamalan leaves one very important detail out until the very end: Malcolm is dead. Finito. Done. Toast since the beginning of the movie, when Vincent shoots him. When Shyamalan omits the actual death scene, we think Malcolm survived. But nope.

When we see Malcolm having problems getting back into his everyday routine, and particularly his relationship with his wife, we assume that maybe post-traumatic stress has created distance between the couple.

So, when Anna doesn't acknowledge Malcolm when he walks into a room (or when he shows up for their anniversary dinner), we don't question it too much. We just feel bad that the seemingly loving couple from the first scene has grown so far apart.

Finally, at the end of the film, we realize that we've been seeing Malcolm's home life through his eyes only, and those eyes have had some serious blinders on them. We only realize he's dead when Malcolm realizes he's dead.

So, while we think we've been given a God's-eye view on all the proceedings for most of the film, we find out we've been well tricked at the very end, when Malcolm (and we) finally have to accept that Vincent killed Malcolm in their encounter at the beginning of the movie.

It's possible to guess that Malcolm is dead before that point, but Shyamalan's misdirection and narrative trickery are really effective in steering us in the wrong direction, in terms of analyzing character interactions and motivations. Normally we don't like when people lie to us, but the payoff is so good that we'll forgive him.