Childhood fears from an adult perspective...

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 2002)

As a child did you ever spend time in a wooded area or in the country near some fruit groves or near a grain crop say, like corn? And during that time did you and your friends try to scare each other with stories about what could be lurking there, just feet from the safety of the front door? Did you play the what if' game? `What if you woke up one day and there where circles impressed in the corn field? What if you started hearing things rustling behind the stalks? What if you started hearing things that go bump in the night. What if, what if, what if' As a child the game could go on forever it seemed. And as the stories grew and the night got darker, your imagination started playing tricks on you. Sometimes you could actually hear those bumps and rustles and feel the eyes staring at you through the leaves but just out of reach of your circle of light. Now, what if it wasn't your imagination. What if it was real? That seems to be the starting point for M. Night Shyamalan's latest venture. It seems at some point he started playing what if' and then took it a step further. This movie seemed to play on near primal fears at times. There are scenes in the movie that are straight out my childhood; being of the generation that grew up with Chariots of the Gods' and The Legend of Boggy Creek'. There is one scene that emulates that famous footage of Big Foot so well that it creeped me out to the core.
I'm sure by now the premise of this picture has been outlined very well. I will just say that the stories are one: about a possible alien encounter and two: the questioning of one man's faith. Sounds like a bit of a paradox, huh? For most people the thought of aliens from other planets alone would put a question to their faith. But in this treatment we have it as a possible restoration of one's faith. The movie starts right away with the discovery of the crop circles in the field and from their keeps adding fuel to the fire of imagination. It keeps winding-up like the string on a top and then rips the cord and lets it spin away. This movie builds tension slowly and then throws in just enough bumps and jolts to keep you riveted

To me the intent of this movie is to, of course, entertain but also provoke questions. Questions about fear, loss and courage, family and forgiveness but most of all faith. In one segment the question is asked, what kind of person are you?' One that believes in miracles and has faith that everything will be ok or one that believes that there is no one out there, that we are all on our own. It suggests that the kind of person we perceive ourselves to be could be questioned under certain circumstances and that we may be better, stronger people than we thought in the end.
Strong performances by all but Abigail Breslin stole the show for me. I especially liked how the children where not condecended to but given respect by the adults. All in all it was a completely enjoyable experience. If I where a star man I'd have to give Signs a four out of four star rating. My thoughts. Yours?