You are unlikely ever to find two actors who make less convincing brothers than Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix in Signs. They simply don't function on any sort of empathetic level whatsoever and never convince one of a genuine bond between them. Gibson plays the lapsed priest and Phoenix his sibling who live together somewhere in an American village with Gibson's children, following the death of Gibson's wife in a car crash, which led to the priest losing his faith and way in life. But despite the lack of realism or credibility about the familial relationships, Signs is as much a tale of family ties and redemption as a story of alien interferings in mortal existence. It's doubly concerning therefore that we never really get anything halfway resembling the necessary resonance.
Our not so happy family are puzzled when they discover their corn field scarred by a series of mysterious crop circles, in common with many dim and distant parts of the earth and we're off with the standard Alien Invader story, far fetched and incredible as any of the genre.
That said, however, and for
all its glaring flaws and downsides, Signs is actually extraordinarily strong as a good, old fashioned scary movie, building up genuine fear and anticipation and all without having to rely on any ridiculously horrific monsters. I wrote recently about Final Destination 2 and its dependence on gory death scenes for its impact, and I emphasised then that really strong horror films depend on the unknown and toying with one's fears in a more subtle, isolated way. Signs has all the true qualities and chilling features that FD2 could so have done with. It's only in the very closing moments that we get anything even halfway resembling a scary monster or a super creep, and it's more the noises, hints and tense discussions between family members which build the real tension and fear. There is some genuine suspense built up over the course of the movie, despite the rib tickling moments when some of our terrified protagonists don silver paper helmets to block their thoughts from the aliens. It's rare to find such funny moments in films such as this, but M Night Shyamalan, who was also responsible for the chilling Sixth Sense, seems to have no fear of such an approach.
Now, it's difficult to really draw any hard and fast conclusions as to whether I actually like Signs or not, because academically speaking it has a lot going for it and certainly matches some very strong moments, such as when the family hides down in the cellar, in the pitch black (cliched I know, but chilling nonetheless), but it's not actually that watchable or enjoyable and ultimately disappoints. The acting is surprisingly low key and lacking in substance, although the muted understatement actually helps things along quite nicely, the staging is stereotypically Mid West with lack of population or personal inter-reaction and there's the standard and unchallenging happy ending, although you do get the obligatory twist in the tale which is quite nicely handled.
Shyamalan, however, does have a way with chillers and finds enough new variations on old themes to demonstrate once again that he has a sure touch. Maybe it was intentional that he got such limiting/limited performances from his players - perhaps it's something to do with the facts that Gibson is better in lighter roles and Phoenix is more suited to being the bad guy. They both seem hopelessly and surprisingly out of their depth here and running on automatic, and I can't really believe that this happened by accident, there simply must be some method in this stupidity. After all, part of the appeal of films about alien invasions is the averageness and dullness of the saviours of the human race and their ascent into the realms of the superhuman, although there's no heroism or heroics on display here.
Just like the film, I'm finding writing this review an unfortunately jumbled and disjointed experience which disappoints and jades, and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to offer anything in the way of any genuine insight or interest.
Okay, try again...
Signs is a modest little tale of alien invasion which was given uncommonly large doses of hype with which to usher it into our consciousness. It would have been far more worthy if they'd gone low budget in terms of both staging and names, but the presence of such big stars as Gibson and Phoenix simply demands much, much more. All the ingredients are here to produce something which is ultimately chilling and scary, but complacency, predictability and a lack of innovation just leave the whole thing feeling surprisingly flat and lifeless. This sort of thing has been done a lot more successfully before, although I enjoyed the way that the monster never quite came stage centre. I can take or leave Signs, acknowledging the positives, but still feel pretty cheated and disappointed. With Sixth Sense, Shyamalan went for the same low key, restrained approach and got a flat performance out of Bruce Willis, although the understatement of both mood and actor was perfect in building up the strength of the film. Here we have a tale which has to be more about excitement and action and the same flat telling just doesn't work and we're left with a tepid little piece with few redeeming features, apart from those ridiculous silver paper helmets, of course.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Willow Smith, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Alice Braga
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inSignsafter tackling ghosts (The Sixth Sense) and superheroes (Unbreakable). With Mel Gibson replacing Bruce Willis as the traditional Shyamalan hero--a family man tr...
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comes the story of the Hess family in Bucks County Pennsylvania who wake up one morning to find a 500 foot crop circle in their backyard. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) a...
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Advantages: Makes you think...and keep on thinking for ages afterwards, it has Mr Gibson in it, superb directing Disadvantages: A bit scary to be rated 12 - and all that thinking made my brain hurt
Collingwood21 12.10.2002 (12.10.2002)
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Review of Signs (DVD)
![Signs [DTS] [DVD] [2002]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/76771759.jpg "Signs [DTS] [DVD] [2002]")
Feb 8th, 2004
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