Over a lot of (re)viewers' heads

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2002)

CONTAINS SPOILER Signs is a much deeper movie than most people seem to expect - and to read a lot of the negative reviews here, too deep for most IMDb users to even understand. Sure, the aliens are a bit weak and predictable, sure the plot has a lot of holes in it, but anyone who focuses on either of those issues has completely missed the point. Signs is not a movie about aliens - it's a movie about faith that happens to have aliens in it. It's a movie about how normal people react to abnormal situations - and the way that the actors showed that to us was far better than almost anything else around.
Yes, Mel Gibson's character behaved irrationally - even incredibly stupidly - at times, but in the context of the character it was completely believable. We all do stupid things - and in the face of such stress we do them more often than not.
The acting was superb throughout - the children were brilliant, and it says a lot about Shyamalan's abilities as a director that he can bring such performances out of them. This and Sixth Sense have the best performances from children I have ever seen. The atmosphere was superb - as long as you weren't a nerd looking for plot-slips and error, but a movie-lover looking for an experience.
If you have any sort of a spiritual life, you'll enjoy this movie immensely. For me it was something very special.