Enchanting

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2003)

with a title like 'Signs' and provocative trailer, we easily can dub this new film feature of M. Night Shyamalan, as an edge-of-your-seat-thriller. Well, it's a gripping thriller certainly, but just was not as we used to think of.
Set in a rural area of Buck County, Pennsylvania, U.S., 'Signs' tells us about Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) that find a mysterious appearance of a five-hundred-foot design of circles and lines carved into his family's crops. His children, Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin) thinks it was an alien works. Evidently, Graham doesn't consider it. He easily thinks it's a prank from the locales. The only person that aware about what happening is his younger sibling, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix). However, when the crops around the globe showing the same phenomena, his faith is being tested once again and when the fate of his family as the stake, he must reveal what lies beneath the Signs.
Sometimes, we have a certain difficulty whether we have watched a good or bad movie. The same wonder struck me when the first time I watched 'Signs'. I felt deceived by the trailer and promos (I even have an interactive CD-ROM). I thought I would encounter that another Hollywood summer blockbuster, but I was wrong, because it seems I have watched a lame and boring little thriller whatsoever.
Moreover, because I was not satisfying enough, than I decide to give it a second chance. From my second encounter, than I realized what 'Signs' is really about. 'Signs' is about a man's journey of faith, presented in an enchanting suspense-drama.
Mr. Shayamalan succeeds to build the tension that it needs. It is raising our emotion from the low to the high by step by step, until on the climax our emotion erupts to the expectation. The drama penned by Mr. Shyamalan given beautiful and moving touch. The suspense is very griping. The performance of Mel Gibson, Rory Culkin and even Abigail Breslin are superb and giving a huge contribution to the film's structure. Only Joaquin Phoenix hardly serve his role decently, because it seems he play it with an over acting way. Overall, 'Signs' is a beautiful drama portraying an ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. 'Signs' is a what-if, so don't bother to push your logical sense on it and you will get an enjoyable cinematic adventure.
8/10