"Signs" Struggles to Find Itself

Rating: 4/10 (26 August 2002)

If you are looking for a film about crop circles or even some good sci-fi, you will be disappointed. Crop circles, which most of us in the real world believe to be hoaxes, don't play much of a role in this film. They only seem to be used here to attract an audience. Once you get beyond the first few scenes, which are incredibly slow and stilted, there's none in sight or even any mention of them. M. Night Shyamalan drags things out over the first 75 minutes and doesn't develop what turns out to be the theme until the last half hour. Even the extraterrestrials seem to play bit parts as this film boils down to one man's struggle to find his faith. Mel Gibson, as Father Graham Hess, had some good emotional scenes, but I was surprised he allowed the denomination of his character's religion to be blurred since his faith is so important in the end. I laughed through many parts of "Signs," not because the characters were all that humorous but because most of the film is just that ridiculous.