Shyamalan flails for another twist ending

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2004)

Signs revolves around a tragic family living an isolated life on a farm, headed by Mel Gibson's lapsed cleric. Mel plasters on his brooding face, pretty much he does in the Lethal Weapon films whenever something bad has happened, only here it's on for over an hour and a half. In tow are a slightly annoying Joaquin Phoenix as the odd younger brother, plus a brace of very annoying kids in the form of Abigail Breslin and a Culkin (it almost doesn't matter which one) who spends most of the film going out of his way to do exactly the opposite of what a normal kid would do in any given situation. Farm life plays out against the background of an 'is it/isn't it?' alien invasion scenario, cleverly played out via new reports on their TV to emphasise their isolation.
Things plod on in relatively suspenseful fashion for a while; a backstory element explaining the reason for Gibson's character ditching the cloth crops up in flashback (the sections of the film which are most satisfactory), but suddenly Shyamalan does the unthinkable and repeats his error from Unbreakable in delivering a staggeringly botched ending.
Wisely refraining from SFX for most of the film, heightening tension with suggested threats as opposed to onscreen violence, the aliens suddenly show themselves and the film stinks up the screen until the credits roll. All trace of claustrophobic thriller is suddenly jettisoned in favour of a final act which comes across as the unwise marriage of Day Of The Triffids and Bull Durham. The final twist in particular borrows wholesale from...Triffids and smacks of a lack of imagination to carry through what was a fairly intriguing vision.