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Signs
****
Cinema Releases - September 13, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12A. USA.
106 minutes. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Mel Gibson,
Joaquin Phoenix, Cherry Jones, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, M. Night Shyamalan,
Patricia Kalember.
There are strange noises in the night, like a
bunch of kids running around in the yard. The farmer and his family wake
up to discover crop circles in the field. A prank, perhaps, but for sure
an elaborate one. The dog will not stop barking, and looks like he's about
to get violent. The little girl cannot sleep at night, and she says the water
tastes funny. Half-empty glasses are left all over the house.
Slowly, oddly, it begins.
"Signs" is the work of a filmmaker
who has secrets buried at the heart of his story and knows how to take time
revealing them. Strange occurrences build in the mind of the viewer and take
on extreme urgency. Our eyes peer deep into the screen as we try to figure
out what's going on. M. Night Shyamalan, who made the clever "Unbreakable"
and the interesting but flawed "Sixth Sense", now rises to the top rank of
directors, with slyness, grace and brilliance.
Mel Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a former man
of the cloth who lost his faith after his wife was killed in a car accident.
He lives with his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and two kids (Rory Culkin, Abigail
Breslin) on a ranch in Pennsylvania, and tries to maintain a house of quiet
calm and order. Then come those crop circles. And news reports of more, appearing
all over the world like roadblocks. "Turn the TV off," says Gibson, when
his son buys a book about UFOs and starts predicting unsavoury possibilities.
After a few days, tension and fascination grow unbearable. "Okay," he says,
with trepidation. "Turn the TV back on."
Not too much should be said about the way the
plot builds, except that it does perhaps involve an alien invasion of earth,
and that while the film seems quiet and noble, it certainly does not end
up as a retread of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Shyamalan's screenplay
and pacing do a tremendous job of building small, peculiar instances into
something grand and terrifying, with the weight of universal implications
invading quiet shots of domestic life. This is not a film that relies on
special effects, except for the invisible kind.
It all builds to a conclusion that's somewhat
more low-key and insular than we expect; revelations about fate, chance and
faith play large roles in the last scenes, and there are one or two shots
that you may find unrestrained or even tacky compared to the brooding, expectant
accumulation of realisations and fears that takes up most of the running
time. Still, the ending makes good sense, and the accomplishment of "Signs"
is the way it grabs our curiosity, disillusions our sense of what to expect
and takes command over our instincts.
It's as if the techniques of crowd-pleasing
entertainment have been turned on their heads and made spooky, unpredictable
and nerve-wracking. Sound, the absence of sound, moments of pure atmosphere,
character development and dry humour are weaved masterfully, until every
shot offers the possibility of some small cranny of visual information that
could turn out to be shattering. There is a scene in this film where some
home video footage comes on the television news, promising to reveal key
information. A crowd of children forms in the foreground of the shot, and
watching this, I found myself moving my head, squinting, trying to figure
out what was past them.
"Signs" is absolutely immersing, and one of the
best films of the year. Even the final moments, which will send many viewers
out annoyed or shaking their heads, are a testament to how much Shyamalan
has held the attention of his audience, in that our heads cannot help but
run wild as the meaning of the story is expanded and
redefined.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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