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| Signs
Directed By: M.
Night Shyamalan Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a five-hundred-foot crop circle is found on the farm of Graham Hess (Gibson), the town's reverend. The circles cause a media frenzy and test Hess's faith as he journeys to find out the truth behind the crop circles.[TRAILER] "It's a film about crop circles and aliens." I can just imagine the director pitching this idea and the eyes of the studio executives start to roll. "Signs" is not your standard summer studio film. Then again, M. Night Shyamalan is not your typical director. He has a certain fascination with the unknown, for the unknowable, and revels in slapping the audience across the face with its own curiosity. "The Sixth Sense," his remarkable debut into American films, was about a child who could see dead people. "Unbreakable" asked the audience to believe the unbelievable, that comic book heroes could exist in the real world. "Signs" is a similar venture. Who has not been in bed at night, heard sounds, and wondered if there was something outside their window? Who has not looked up at the stars and wondered if there was something or someone looking back? Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) hears such sounds at night. He is not imagining it. He wakes one morning to the screams of his kids, the irrepressible Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin). They are staring at a large circle in their cornfield; a circle they soon see copies of on television from countries around the world. Hess was a minister and a husband at one point and the audience slowly learns why such titles no longer apply. When the shapes start appearing in his crops, the sounds start encroaching on his house, and the lights start flashing around the world's skies, he has only one concern: his two children. So he, Morgan, Bo, and his live-in brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) barricade the doors and windows, prepare one last meal and anticipate each night with dread. "Signs" is not pure fantasy. It is very much grounded in emotions, characters and a family put under incredible stress. Granted, the external conflict may strike many as absurd, but the true story being told is simply that of a father and minister. But something is missing in the balance between the mysteries of the night and a family on the brink. Shyamalan has such fun with the unknown that he forgets to give the audience something solid to relate to. The magic he creates in a dark, moonlit cornfield never successfully transfers to the daytime. The result is a film that sags between its night sequences. The only comparison I can think of is a "Jaws" without a story between shark attacks. Also, the characters are never really given the attention they deserve. True, the film's ultimate climax surrounds its characters and we witness the nightly encounters from the family's perspective, but Shyamalan, serving also as writer and producer, is far too willing to sacrifice believability for mood. The result is a film that never gains its footing. Sure, there are flaws in the acting and the story, but they are easy to overlook given the promise of fantastic surprises to come. When those surprises let us down, there is nothing much left to fill in the gaps. As the shadows pass the boarded windows and the pounding starts at the doors, Shyamalan pushes us to the brink of screaming at the unseen. When those mysterious figures end up being rather silly, there's absolutely nothing left to keep our interest. Shyamalan puts all of his eggs in a very unstable basket. That said, he has a gift for filmmaking. He knows how to control every aspect of the film to manipulate us exactly as he intends. He proved it with "The Sixth Sense," where emotions, not tricks, guided the audience through the unknown. "Signs" is different because, unlike "Sense," the truth of the Hess house is far less interesting than the mystery. Without characters to care about, the daytime reality never measures up to the nightly terror. "Signs" is no less crafty, but far less fulfilling. It would have been even more frightening if Hess had never discovered what was going bump in the night.  
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