Unidentified Film Ovation

M Night Shymalan broke into the big time with his third feature film The Sixth Sense. It was a film that actually delivered a solid story and had a twist that ensured word of mouth would drive the film's taking for weeks on end. His follow up film was Unbreakable, a film that wasn't as successful but in my view was a superior film. It required the audience to buy into it's grand theme and there were those that didn't get it and found it slow moving not slow burning.

Mel Gibson stars as Father Graham Hess, a priest who has given up on his faith when his wief is killed in a horrific accident. Now he lives on a farm in a small rural community with his two young children Bo and Morgan (Rory Culkin and Abagail Breslin) and his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Pheonix). One morning they awake to find a giant crop circle in one of their corn fields, it's perfectly made and too elaborate to perhaps be a prank. Soon across the world other crop circles appear. Soon the world finds that these circles are indeed the creation of aliens who are now coming to earth on different continents with the possible threat of war. Hess's family become engrossed in the widespread media coverage and witness the signs of alien life as strange noises are picked up on radios and shadowed figures appear to be lurking in the darkness. All the while Graham has to contend with his own inner grief over his loss.

The acting in the film is excellent. Gibson is very good in what is probably one of his most demanding roles. You can always rely on him to convey a family man character well but Shymalan also throws in some emotional conflict that really comes off later in the film when Gibson is required to actually lose it and it's very believeable. Pheonix is also assured as his brother, his character is perhaps not the most important but he holds his own well against Gibson. Also once again Shymalan has pulled some excellent performances out of his younger cast members. Culkin is great and shows that it's not just older brothers who can act. but it's Breslin as the young girl who excels. She's incredibly cute but not in that way that annoys for an entire movie. She genuinely made me care. The supporting cast are also good in small roles, all of them are faces you haven't really seen before and that's what makes the story more believeable. Even Shymalan himself bulks up his usual cameo role into a more substantial and integral character, he even pulls it off well.

With Signs, Shymalan has shown that audiences still actually like to see films that have traditional production values. It's very well shot, delivers on every account. He doesn't pull out the ending that twists everything around with this film but he's instead delivered an ending which is very low key but incredibly satisfying. I got the same feeling from when Bruce Willis finally realised his power in Unbreakable. Combine that with a classy James Newton Howard score and you something that can really show other film-makers how to do it.