Screams first, thoughts afterwards.

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2003)

A silhouette. A leg. Fingers. They are wary. They are invisible. And they are coming in great numbers. This may disturb you...
When I first pressed "play" button, all I knew about "Signs" is that something weird is going to happen on Mel Gibsons' characters' corn field. May be Steven King rising from the soil, or even something more terrible. Fortunately, it was nothing like that. Soon it became clear that it's definitely not rednecks vs. aliens type of movie. And it still scared. It's been a long since I almost jumped out of my chair last time. But "Signs" made me do it again. Thanks to all the film crew for that. No guts, gore, jaws, tentacles, torn body parts and other "meat" stuff.
It is the presence that make you nervous. Presence of something unknown with intentions not clear. It's throughout the movie, all the way. You are scared by what you do NOT see. And when you finally do... The scene representing Merrill being watching a "genuine birthday video" is just great. First, TV host warns you, that you WILL see. Then children will point you WHERE you will see. You think to yourself: "Oh, now it finally will appear. Right now, right there". And it does. Exactly where you were supposed to. Still a shock. Look at Joaquin Phoenixs' face, then go look to a mirror. By the way, I found out, that in Russian translation they slightly altered the original TV womans' words to something like "I hate to say... I'm afraid this is real". Some personality touch, hmm...
I liked the humour, too. It's not much fun usually in such situations, when there's "the same show an all channels", as we all now know for sure. But comic stuff happens, whether we want it or not. Well, it looks fun mostly to the viewer, not the characters, but still entertains.
And after all, this is not horror or thriller or anything like that movie. It deals with faith (not necessarily in divine), the way we are facing the problems and trouble, no matter of what cause them.
Read forth if you saw the film already. Else see first. (No spoilers, one just got to see the movie to get sense of what am I talking about).
As final credits rolled, I was up to two questions. First - am I the miracle man, or not. And you? That is a harder choice that it may seem. Graham seriously doubts on answer too. And it looks to me that Merrill has nearly changed his mind at some point of the movie. And that leads us to the second question - in what we will believe, if the things will suddenly go the way they did in the movie. What if one day there will be the same show on all channels again...
Yet haven't decided on either question, 9 of 10 goes to "Signs".