A well crafted thriller, Shyamalan at his best

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2002)

Signs is a sensational film, but like Sixth Sense and the less popular Unbreakable, it isn't for those without a sense of imagination. The story gets rolling when retired reverend Graham Hess (Gibson), along with his his two children and his younger brother Merill (Phoenix) discover a crop circle in their corn field. As the Hess family confronts their daily struggles, the tension mounts to an incredible climax as all the "signs" point to extra-terrestrial harassment.
Gibson turns in a great and uncharacteristically soft performance as a faithless preacher, hollowed out by an the unfortunate death of his wife. Phoenix, who stood out in Gladiator as this millennium's creepiest villain, steals the show with a eminently likable character who often takes the edge off the suspense with a laugh line or a sight gag. We're used to seeing kids in Shyamalan's films, but in Signs he's given us two at once, and Rory Culkin and the adorable Abigail Breslin play off of each other very well.

The last character in the film is the setting. Location. Location. Etc. The atmosphere went a long way to making this the scariest film I've ever seen. Shyamalan is becoming adept at controlling an audience, holding a closeup for just long enough, and showing us exactly what scares us the most - sometimes everything, sometimes a little, sometimes nothing.
This is a very different kind of movie than most people are used to seeing, from the quality of the writing, to the piecemeal exposition of the family's situation, to the camera work, and most of all because of the really daring nature of the subject matter. I read one review that called Signs derivative - no way. Shyamalan makes his own films, his own way. If you come out of it not knowing if you've just watched a sci-fi film or a drama, I think that's a fantastic feeling. Its a suspense film, no one should be confused about that, but the amount of warmth and humor that can fit into the gaps between the thrills is surprising.
If you have the opportunity to see this in the theater, do it, especially if you liked both Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Bring friends so you can laugh when they laugh, and see it in a packed theater so when the audience gasps, you gasp with them. Rather than pick every line and every shot apart trying to figure out what kind of shocking revelation Shyamalan will dump on you at the end, just get lost in it, so that you can smile when it all comes together.