Shyamalan is Getting Closer.

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2004)

Reading reviews on this site and the Signs message board can be a bit confounding. It would seem a lot of people either are getting caught up in the "plausibility" aspect of the ending, which Hitchcock remarked to Truffuat about, or they were disappointed the final scenes didn't end in some type of cataclysmic battle. I think both criticisms miss the point. What Shyamalan is trying to do here ( for the most part he succeeds) is both awe us, and make us consider more than just what the plot says is happening. After making the disappointing Sixth Sense which slowly made its way to an obvious "twist" ending, and the much better but still lacking Unbreakable, Shyamalan comes closer to realizing the potential that his talent makes so evident. This is the closest he has yet come to a masterpiece. The premature Hitchcock comparisons are fitting in some ways, the director knows how to utilize mis-en-scene for maximum impact and he does a very good job with the suspense scenes( I was on the edge of my seat two times on the second viewing of the movie, and many more the first time). Shyamalan is not there yet, but perhaps given a few more films and a perfect script he is closer to being thought of as one of the greats. This is no complaint though, I enjoyed this movie more than I have most so called big budget movies getting similar critical praise. 4.5/5