Signs

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 107 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Signs is a movie that proves that less can be more when a great film maker is at work. And M. Night Shyamalan is one of the best directors working today.

Signs

Notice our vital stats column on the right of this page. The movie gets very few ticks for any of the stuff we normally like. There’s also no bigtime special effects or anything like that. However, this is one of the best thrillers we’ve seen in a long time.

As is normally the case with Shyamalan’s work, you really want to watch the movie for the first time knowing as little as possible about the story in advance. You really cheat yourself if you do not just let the story unfold in front of you on the screen. With that said, we will tell you even less about the story itself than was revealed in the trailer. The basic premise is a farmer, played by Mel Gibson, finds crop circles in his field, and we follow along as he and his family search for the cause.

Signs is all about suspense. And M. Night is absolutely masterful in generating it. He uses a lot of sound, low light and clever camera work to create much of the suspense. But the story itself and the writing is also masterful. Even the wind blowing adds to the intensity of this movie. And he knows when to pause, and let the suspense build by doing nothing at all.

Mel and the cast do a wonderful job with the characters as well. While the main story is unfolding, there are sub-stories also unfolding that reveal more and more about the characters. This is clever in that it makes the movie less predictable than it would be if we knew everything we needed to know about the characters 15 minutes into the film.

I think it is safe to say if you enjoyed Shyamalan’s previous works, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, you’re going to like this movie too. Although we really enjoyed the movie, it lacks that little something magic needed to make us click that 5th star. Although perhaps necessary due to how M. Night likes to pace a movie, it does also have some slow spots in the middle. We give Signs 4 stars. And we recommend you see this one as soon as you can before some inconsiderate person spoils the story for you.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, Joaquin Phoenix, Mel Gibson, PG-13, Rory Culkin, Theatrical, Thriller