Intense, but not quite as atmospheric and thrilling as Shyamalan's other works.

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2004)

Signs
Graham Hess is a former priest, who has lost all his faith in god when his wife died. Now he is living with his 2 children and his brother, they're living outside a small town running a farm. One day "Signs" starts to appear in their crop fields, at first they think it's made my local people playing a joke on the, but as they watch the television similar "Signs" starts to appear all the world. While this is going on Graham Hess is continues to struggle with the death of his wife and her last words "Tell Merril to swing" and "Tell Graham to see".
I am a keen admirer of Shyamalan's amazing talent to build up an intense atmosphere in his movies, especially "The Sixth Sense" gives a fantastic view into his perfectionistic feeling for movies. And while this movie is still an admirable effort, it has more flaws than the other Shyamalan movies i have viewed, it's not nearly as thrilling and the awaited twist is a bit sloopy, but the movie is still very intense most of the way. And it does have a lot of Shyamalan's trademarks, i just think that the story itself is not nearly as engaging and interesting as the others, i think Shyamalans twist is also more predictable and expected than in his other movies, there are simply revealed too much for it to really shock. You see some of it coming most of the way, but there are still some things in the end that does indeed make other things in the movie make more sense, but it's nowhere near as powerful and outstanding done as in his earlier movies, but this is still a highly original movie that brings what one expects.
I am sure that this is also one of the movies that will divide the general public opinion, the movie can really be understood two ways. Are they all living in some sort of dream? Or is the movie about faith in god and the fact that everything one way or the other, does indeed happen for a reason. I believe in the 2nd. My primary reason for this is that the movie just doesn't make sense if you understand it as a dream, too many things are revealed and too many things wouldn't make sense. If there were only 4 characters in the movie it would make sense, but there are many more, and it would all be too realistic for it all to be a dream. However the 2nd thing is what seems more real, and also what makes most sense, and i have a strong confidence that it is what Shyamalan wanted to say with this movie. "Never lose faith, everything does happen for a reason".
The directing is definitely strong here, i think Shyamalan have once again proven that he is one of the most talented and interesting new directors, and i do look forward to seeing his new project as i find his style very engaging and interesting. Also i think he has his own style which is good, you can feel that its Shyamalan that have made the movie, and the original feeling he brings adds up for a good experience in watching his movies, he is really good at creating an intense atmosphere in the movie itself, even if it doesn't work out as well here as it have done in his other movies. But who can blame him, Sixth Sense was almost a definition of a perfect thriller.
Another thing i have admired Shyamalan for earlier is his apparent skill to make child actors seem so reliable and realistic in their way, a place where many fails because children naturally aren't very experienced and generally also more immature and nervous, but this is the 3rd movie in a row where Shyamalan makes all of his cast play some very convincing roles and there is hardly ever a flaw here. Especially Joaquin Phoneis is fantastic, and i will always have the image of him with the helmet on burnt inside my eyes.
To sum it all up a bit, i am as said a big admirer and fan of Shyamalans special style, for me he is one of the best directors i have seen since Carpenters early days in building up an intense atmosphere, and even though this movie doesn't come close to the perfection of The Sixth Sense, it's still a solid and thrilling movie that will surprise you, even if you think you have the ending predicted.
7/10