Movie Review: Signs

Signs

The word "signs" can refer to directional or informational markers, or it can be synonymous with "portent". In Signs, the latest offering from M. Night Shyamalan's creative mind, it turns out to mean even more.

Mel Gibson is Graham Hess, a former minister who lost his faith as the result of a personal tragedy. He is now a farmer with two young children trying to move on with his life without his much loved wife. Joaquin Phoenix plays Graham's brother, Merrill, who has moved back to the family farm to help his brother with both his farm and his young family. Early one morning, Graham wakes to find his children missing from their beds. When he hears a distant scream, he runs into a nearby cornfield to save the kids, who he assumes are in trouble. Joined by Merrill, the two are astounded to find the children safe but the corn crop marked with intricate crop circles.

Assuming the crop circles are the work of some neighborhood mischief makers, Graham pays scarce attention to the fact that his dogs are acting strangely and his young daughter, Bo (played by six year-old Abigal Breslin) suddenly insists the water is "contaminated" and refuses to drink more than a sip out of any given glass. When the family dogs, however, begin acting viciously, and when the usual trouble-making suspects prove to have solid alibis, Graham begins to fear both the unknown and what he thinks the answer to the mystery might be. The family's descent into abject terror is interspersed with flashbacks of Hess' young wife and her gruesome and untimely death, something that helps us to understand Graham Hess all the better and to empahize with him all the more. Though I found the crisis-of-faith motif to be too trite for real feeling, on the whole, Hess is an admirable man just trying to live life and move forward as best he can.

Though Gibson and Phoenix are quite good, Breslin steals almost every scene she's in. Another member of the acting Culkin clan, Rory, is okay as her older brother, Morgan. The real standout in Signs, though, is a brilliantly written script by Shyamalan. Though the movie is terrifying, the horror is subtle. Shyamalan actually increases the impact of the story by narrowing his focus to highlight the circumstance of just one family among many who are suffering and afraid. And he sees to it that, while we rarely glimpse the objects of the family's fears, through their eyes we're more than convinced it's fearful indeed. The direction, again by Shyamalan, is also top notch, as is some very creative cinemetography by Tak Fujimoto.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Signs is rated PG-13 for intensity, and it is intensely frightening. Because it involves young children in danger, I would not recommend this movie for little ones. In fact, some sensitive young teens will have problems with this movie, though the reasonable 13 year-old will be fine. For the mature movie-goer, however, Signs has much to recommend it.