Shyamalan's Sign left me wondering

Rating: Null/10 (2 August 2002)

Most people will walk away from this movie thinking about the aliens and the signs in the fields, and not the signs that tell you everything happens for a reason. There are things that are set into motion that we have no control over, and like in his previous films Shyamalan plays with that, the idea that we can't control everything that there is a higher power. I rather enjoyed Shyamalan's continual use of putting ordinary people in extra-ordinary circumstances. Mel Gibson is heartbreaking as the bereaved husband, and Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin shine as his sympathetic children. It was great to watch Joaquin Phoenix as a vulnerable jock who loves his brother and his brother's children and wants to help them anyway he can. Signs just isn't about the big bigger picture, but the smaller one. Yes, it scared me a bit and sadden me a great deal, because Shyamalan asks the question do you have hope and faith or don't you? (spoiler) That question haunts you through the entire movie as well as Mel Gibson's character.