Flawed but better than its reputation

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2016)

There are few things more or less all moviegoers tend to agree about, one of them being that the career of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, after an impressive start (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable), has turned out to be a huge disappointment. Opinions may differ on the moment he completely lost it, although Lady in the Water is generally regarded as the point his hubris got the better of him.
Like The Village, Signs belongs to a middle Shyamalan phase, where his visual talent still made up for his limits (preachiness, plot holes, the egotistic insistence of casting himself in pivotal roles).
Signs follows an alien invasion from the point of view of a small rural family including a widowed father (Mel Gibson), his younger brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and two kids. The movie is filmed with style, intelligence and an unusual attention to silence and stillness in the build-up of atmosphere.
The elephant in the room is, of course, a plot hole so conspicuous it has achieved memetic status, with the water-allergic invaders mastering interstellar travel but not raincoats and umbrellas. Why don't you just commit yourself to directing and leave screenplays to better writers and acting to actors, Night? Not everyone can be Orson Welles and pull triple duty.
Special mention for the fine score by James Newton Howard, homaging the works of the great Bernard Herrman.
6,5/10