Powerful and moving yet strangely unenjoyable movie watching

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2004)

Signs is a movie that makes you think. What you think the movie is going to be about is deceptive. I watched it just recently and came away confused about my feelings on it. On one hand, this is a powerful and forceful movie. It is very well acted and thought provoking. The cinematography is wonderful considering how low budget it was. However, it is a tough movie to enjoy. I freely admit I did not enjoy Signs at all, in fact I nearly walked out. Yet it wasn't necessarily a bad movie just not for everybody.
One possible negative is the atmosphere. I'm big on movies that are atmospheric. With Signs, there is atmosphere from the beginning. Yet from the first five minutes of the movie, what was interesting to me, is that the movie used atmosphere less as a backdrop to the movie itself, rather the atmosphere WAS the movie. The atmosphere didn't quietly sneak up on you, it hurled itself at you full force from the first few minutes. Rippling cornfields. Dogs barking. strange sounds. etc etc. There was no buildup at all, it just came at you right away. One could tell immediately that this movie was gonna be a bit odd.
The dialogue had a muted quality that actually went with the story perfectly but made the movie unfortunately a bit tedious. I will say that the first forty minutes of signs were, for me, almost unwatchable. The movie does pick up after that, as the tone is gradually altered and insite is gained into the main characters. But it's a long forty minutes.
Signs is a movie that's impossible to pick on because it's impact is so intense toward the end if one succeeds in following it to the end, you won't turn it off untouched. There are certain scenes that will literally take hold of you and I credit Mel Gibson for a lot of that, he was amazing in this.There is a certain scene that I won't give away but he engages in a dialogue with God, the pain and sense of loss his character conveys is Oscar worthy and may leave you a bit shaken-if you get that far.
Unfortunately, because of the oddness of the movie and the fact that it's very difficult to get into for a large part of it, it may lose certain people before they have a chance to get swept into it. I watched it with a group of people one of whom walked out and I almost did. At the end I was not sure if I was glad or not to have seen it through.
In closing, Signs is a movie Guaranteed to inspire debate-(just look at the varying opinions on this board). It is intense. Gritty. Powerful. And moving. Enjoyable? Not at all. But maybe it wasn't supposed to be, this is not exactly a movie that one could possibly call commercial. Signs is a movie I perhaps respect the heck out of more then like in any way. I simply cannot give it a rating either. If I were rating it on personal enjoyment my rating would be pretty low. If I were rating it on edginess and power it would be much higher. Maybe those intrigued by a movie such as this, who haven't seen it should give it a try and judge for themselves.