Signs

Since I am testing a form of archiving, you have to bear one of my older reviews on what I considered to be a contemporary classic. Don’t know if three years down the lane I still hold the opinion, but there’s no denying the fact that Signs is a good film and depicts something I continue to believe in.

Signs (2002):*****

For someone who believed that the nauseatingly sinister Sixth Sense couldn’t be bettered, Signs came in for a rather big shocker. Arresting and arousing right uptil its last frame, Signs is the stuff masterpieces are made of.

Contrary to what everyone expected, I had been putting off plans to watch this one simply because I’ve had enough of the tentacled aliens and visitors-from-beyond-the-planet cr*p. So yes, when I finally got my DVD, I had hoped this one to take the same SFX-action-packed path as endless humans-against-aliens flicks have so repeatedly taken. But was I surprised or what!!

First things first– Shyamalan’s version of aliens are more of motifs representing any unseen, of-unexpected-caliber calamity that might strike anywhere, to anyone. Its primarily how a small family deals in such fragile moments– how they interact with each other, how they draw strength from each other, fight with the circumstances and keep themselves afloat with the faith that they’ll come out of the difficult time, no matter what.

Just as Sixth Sense has had a huge impact in how I think about life after death, Signs delivered an even more stronger comment of small miracles guiding one’s life– and as uncanny as it may sound, the strange coincidences, or esoteric happenings [the ones that "are meant to be"] that I realised had proved to be ultimately rewarding in my life– all of them came back to me as I watched this exemplary film. Yet again, a very convincing undertone on faith, beliefs, moralities— Signs is memorable because of the comforting message of “not losing faith in life”— which it delivers with so much conviction.

Shyamalan’s storytelling is several notches above both his previous attempts — the “Sixth Sense” and the “Unbreakable”. Thankfully, out of his “surprise-ending” mode, this time around, the tension is immediate– even before you have settled yourself in your couch. And it reaches the crescendo slowly [sometimes you get a glimpse of the aliens' feet, sometimes its fingers] till that one criminally scary moment arrives– and is it brilliantly done or what! In fact the first time I saw that lean-mean-green figure tiptoeing across the snowy TV screen in Hess’s house, I remember my insides curling up. I just couldn’t move, so frightening was the whole sight. And this is just one example of the menacing combination of Shyamalan’s timing and acoustics. The whole dark, isolated atmosphere, in fact every bit of the sound that reaches one’s ears is timed with so much caution, that every single surprise and menace becomes wrenchingly creepy and absolutely unforgettable.

And the more said about the performers, the less it’d always be. Primarily, Signs is Hess’s film, and Mel Gibson knows that. His journey from being a church priest who denounces all faith in the Almighty after the painful demise of his wife in a fierce accident to being the patriach of the family who comforts his two children by relating them their birth when aliens are rapping all around their house [one of film's thoroughly moving sequences] and who finally re-embraces his trust in God is decidedly very uplifting. Gibson, in his element right from the first scene, is most memorable in the just singled out sequence and the one where he relates to Merrill, his younger brother, the difference in believing the “signs” as either “coincidences” or as “miracles”. He’s the life of the film and its the performance of a lifetime.

Joaquin Phoenix as Merrill complements Gibson scene for scene and Abigail Breslin is a revelation as the giddy-cute Bo Hess. Cherry Jones and Shymalan himself make their presence felt through their finely tuned performances in their respective cameos though Rory Culkin as Morgan Hess, despite playing the “stereotypical, elusive, know-all, Shyamalan” boys, puts in a brave show. The fact that one connects so easily to each of the numbered characters of the film, that the feeling of fear, excitement, horror–all of them are heightened beyond explanation. I have to confess that I don’t generally qualify as the weak-hearted, but the fact that I was so drawn into the film first time around that when it finished, I was praying that one of those green aliens don’t descend on me atleast tonight is proof enough how rivetting and terrifying an experience Signs proved to be.

Most people didn’t take to the traditional, simple climax of the Signs which I really found quite amusing, for its these same people who had trashed Shyamalan’s previous two attempts as “oh-he-just-puts-in-a-surprise-ending-and-writes-a-story-around-it”. And as far as those who criticised Shyamalan’s vision of aliens; yes, the premise that these creatures have a problem with pantry doors and wooden boards is rather irking at first but every film-maker is entitled to his version of aliens— so what if Shyamalan wants to purposely keep them a bit abstruse and mysterious? One look at how the man has handled every minute of this film and how creepy he’s made his aliens look– all this criticism doesn’t really hold a candle.

Easily Shyamalan’s best shot to date, Signs is one hell of a movie watching experience. Not only is it mysterious, horrifying, hair-raising, dreadfully frightening but also deeply moving, emotionally absorbing and ultimately very rewarding– it’s a film you’ll love watching again, and again, and again.

3 Cheers to Shyamalan and his crew!