Thought-provoking!

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2002)

This was a very thought-provoking movie about how an alien invasion of our planet affects one family, and whether or not we believe in a "supreme being" of some sort guiding our decisions.
In a way, this movie is a lot like Independence Day, but without all the awesome special effects. Instead, we are made to care about the Hess family: Mel Gibson, as the preacher who has lost his faith after his wife's accidental death; Joaquin Phoenix, as his brother, who's a minor-league baseball player who never made it big; and Rory Culkin (looking very much like his older brother, Macauley) and Amanda Breslin, as his children, who are both still hurting from their mother's death.
There are some funny moments in this film - was I the only one who thought that Tracy's confession was hysterical? - to offset the more intense moments. I don't think that any of it was too much for a child to handle, though, so I thought it kid-friendly.

The basic concept of the movie, though, is about faith. After September 11, 2001, I believe that a lot of Americans worried about the "end of the world," so to speak. We didn't know what to expect from moment-to-moment, just as the Hess family doesn't know what to expect in this film. Do you believe in "God" (in whatever form you accept), and do you think that everything happens for a reason, or do you believe that things just happen randomly, for no particular reason? I found these ideas genuinely thought-provoking, and that's why I think that this film was a very quietly powerful one.