Signs (2002)

Plot: Six months ago, Graham Hess' (Mel Gibson) wife died, prompting Graham to leave the church and care for their two children, Morgan (Rory Caulkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin) and their farm. Graham's younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) moved in with them to help out, although he feels useless to his brother. The Hesses become interested in the supernatural activities around their Pennsylvania farm after they discover crop circles too perfect to be made by human hands.

April takes requests: part 3!

Alright, Signs isn't so much a request as it is a discrepancy, but you get the idea. As you may recall, when I referred to The Village as M. Night Shyamalan's best, Carol quickly pointed out that I hadn't, in fact, seen all of his films. Signs was missing from my critic's collector's edition.

Now, I have seen it. I maintain my earlier statement. The Village is his best work to date.

As such, I don't particularly feel it necessary to enter into another discussion about his work as a writer/director/producer. I've mentioned it in the past, and I am happy to say it again: Shyamalan understands that what you don't see is far more terrifying than what you do.

As always, half the film seems to go by before you glimpse anything. There's nothing there, then something suddenly walks out and James Newton Howard's score goes, "DUNNNN!!!!!" when whatever it is appears.

What I didn't know was that Shyamalan had a little comedy in him! I definitely did not see that coming, which made those few laughs all the more enjoyable for me. Gibson trying to act scary by screaming, "I AM INSANE WITH ANGER!" was almost too much. And he didn't kill anybody or anything! He wasn't violent at all. I liked that.

Or Phoenix telling the Brazilian children to vamanos through the TV screen, only to be so frightened that he went flying off his chair. I liked that as well.

Of course, grown male leads aside, it's the children who steal the show. For all that's made about Dakota Fanning being an adult in a child's body, I believe that's a title that rightly belongs Caulkin. There's a scene right at the beginning where Gibson turns Caulkin's head so that he looks into his father's eyes, and Caulkin turns Gibson's head back by the chin to see the crop circle. That one gesture was possibly the most chilling for me in the entire movie.

Mind you, he's also quite endearing. At one point he's walking away to a bookstore, and it kills me when he just reaches his hand out behind him as he goes, waiting for Breslin/Bo join him with being told or asked.

Breslin steals your heart with her huge eyes and strangely steady delivery. The role that she plays in their eerily connected family is possibly the most significant, and she manages to convey an understanding beyond her years through little dialogue.

Like all of Shyamalan's films, this movie deals with a belief in the interconnectedness of all things. I'm not sure where he comes down in terms of religious belief himself, but it's clear that he doesn't want us to take anything for granted.

Perhaps that's the real point of all his movies.

Perhaps that's what I'll discover when I make them talk to each other.