It's official; I am an M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) fan. This review of Signs, the latest film directed, written, and produced by Shyamalan will lean towards being very favorable. I believe this film does not establish him as the next Spielberg, but establishes that he is on the right path to getting there.
Signs starts off on a farm 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia. Mel Gibson is the former Father Graham Hess, a retired Episcopalian priest. He actually isn't retired because he was old enough to retire; he has more or less "left" the priesthood due to a lack of faith following the loss of his wife in a tragic accident. Something is rustling in his cornfield, and his kids bring it to his attention. What he finds are the giant signs in the fields that are hard to explain but initially thought to be from a rival farmer's kids. Then things get real interesting. Like most of Shyamalan's films, the film is far more enjoyable with the less you know.
Shyamalan displays that he can still keep you on the edge of your seat and much more interested in what is going on than you were in his last film, Unbreakable. While Unbreakable moved at a funeral march pace, this film is a classic thriller in a Hitchcockian style. Once again, he draws our attention and interest without big special effects; he does it in an old fashioned way, with the music, the story and the way that he directs his films. He shows little glimpses of things and makes us more scared by what we can't see than what we do see. It is these tactics that make Signs a stylish, captivating, and even frightening thriller.
The acting is nothing to rave about, but I was surprised that I was not completely annoyed by Mel Gibson as I normally am. He actually pulls the role of the faithless priest and father off pretty well. Joaquin Phoenix is average as the younger brother of Graham Ness who is helping take care of the farm and care for the kids. The children who play Ness' children, Abigail Breslin (Bo Hess) and Rory Culkin (Morgan Hess) actually add a great dynamic to the film. Once again, Shyamalan uses children to get to our fears.
Once again, you need to suspend disbelief and skepticism in order to enjoy this film - this is how it was with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and definitely how it has to be with Signs. It's a film about…well things that leave crop signs. If you refuse to believe it could be anything other than a hoax, then you're going to have issues with this film.
Another similarity in this film to his others is the tying of emotional issues, the loss of a loved one into the story. It ties into the movie in a big way as you realize after the flashbacks that being to re-occur. A little bit on the new agey "everything happens for a reason" philosophy, for me it worked. I know it is this aspect and the way the ending is that a lot of people have criticized the film for. I know that there were other ways it could have been done but for me the way the film ends is classic Shyamalan and I was content with it. The way that the subject matter is handled, the style of the shots and the story all show Shyamalan has a distincitve style that will keep him a big name in movies for years to come.
Scary but not bloody or full of special effects, Signs is scary and thrilling in a way we don't usually see at the summer time box office. It is a powerful film about faith and love and coincidences and definitely one of the best films of the summer. Not for the diehard action crowd - you may want to wait for XXX if that's what you're looking for.
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