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- Cert:
- Running time: 106 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Released: 13th September 2002
- Widescreen Ratio: 1.85:1
- Rating: 6/10
Director:
- M Night Shyamalan
(Signs, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable)
Cast:
- Father Graham Hess: Mel Gibson
Merrill Hess: Joaquin Phoenix
Officer Caroline Paski: Cherry Jones
Morgan Hess: Rory Culkin
Bo Hess: Abigail Breslin
Ray Reddy: M. Night Shyamalan
Colleen Hess: Patricia Kalember
SFC Cunningham: Ted Sutton
Tracey Abernathy: Merritt Wever
Those of you who are a bit concernedthat I might give the game awayregarding any secrets that Signs possesses need not worry – I’m not goingto be discussing the plot in too much detail. What I will say is that whenit’s all over, you may well be left wondering if it was worth the bother.
With his last two films, Unbreakable andThe Sixth Sense,M. Night Shyamalan has established himself as probably the hottest youngwriter/director in Hollywood, whilst earning a reputation for craftingintelligent, slow-burning thrillers with a sting in the tail. This means,possibly unfairly, that Signs arrives with certain baggage and expectationsthat it struggles to meet. The fact remains though that, taken purely onits own merits, it is still unsatisfactory.
No time at all is wasted in setting up the events of the film, asPennsylvania farmer Graham Hess wakes up one morning to find huge areas ofhis fields have been flattened into geometric shapes by means unknown. Welearn he is a former reverend who left the church after the death of hiswife, and who is now raising his son and daughter with the help of hisyounger brother Merrill, a former baseball star.
During the next couple of days, more strange occurrences make the familysuspect all is not right: their dogs bark constantly and behave moreaggressively; young daughter Bo states matter of factly there’s a monsteroutside her room; mysterious noises are heard outside the house. Grahamsuspects it’s all a prank by some neighbours with whom he’s had sometrouble before, but when every television station begins broadcastingpictures of crop circles similar to their own from locations all around theworld, it becomes clear something is happening on a far larger scale. Is itall a big hoax? Is it aliens? Is it all just a marketing ploy by a colacompany?
As I said, it’s not for me to say. If you’ve read much about Signs though,you may well already know the source of the mystery and it’s here that thefilm begins to unravel. For most of its running time it plays as a creepyand efficient thriller, with some genuinely scary and tense scenes, aswell as some surprisingly funny ones. All the actors do well and we careabout the family and their situation. When the time comes for Shyamalan toreveal his cards however, we discover he isn’t holding any aces and theentire film simply deflates and crawls into the corner. It’s an interestingconcept to focus on one family’s crisis in the midst of a global event, butnot an event of this nature, and certainly not merely for the purpose ofreaching the conclusion that is reached here.
Review copyright © Paul Greenwood, 2002.E-mail Paul Greenwood
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.