raham Hess (Gibson) awakes with a start. It's early morning on his homestead in Bucks County, Pa., where he lives with his two small children, Morgan (Culkin) and Bo (Breslin), and his brother, Merrill (Phoenix). Hearing a muted scream, he runs out into the cornfield to find his children staring at something strange: a crop circle that has appeared out of nowhere. "Are you in my dream, too?" Bo asks. The dogs bark as they sniff the flattened corn. "I think God did it," Morgan says.
It's only the latest in a series of odd occurrences on the farm, to which Graham has retreated after the tragic death of his wife a while back. Bo won't drink water, fearing that it is "contaminated." The dogs are behaving skittishly. Merrill, who has returned to the homestead to look after his grieving brother, falls out of bed. Sheriff's officer Caroline Paski (Cherry Jones) tells Graham that other people in the county have been acting weird as well.
Graham tells Paski to stop calling him "father." Graham has left the ministry as a result of his wife's death. Now, he's trying to find out who's messing with his farm and his family. Late one night, Bo shows up in Graham's room. "There's a monster outside my room. Can I have a drink of water?" she says. When Graham sees a tall, indistinct figure on the roof, he alerts Merrill. Believing it is one of the neighbor boys, the two race around the house, only to find no one there at all. Except one of the dogs, which has inexplicably wound up on the roof.
Graham reports the incident to Paski, who has a hard time believing any of it. But that's when the news reports start filtering in: More crop circles have appeared, almost overnight, around the world. Morgan thinks extraterrestrials are behind the phenomena. "What in God's name is going on?" Graham asks.
In town, Graham encounters nervous residents who worry that the crop circles augur the end of the world. A military recruiter tells Merrill he's figured it out. The circles are the first signs, "to make sure that thing are all clear."
"Clear for what?" Merrill asks.
"For the rest of them," the recruiter says.
All Signs point to suspense
Signs is the latest offering from The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable director Shyamalan, who proves in this movie that he is
one of the few current commercial filmmakers with a distinct voice and vision. It shares many of the attributes of his previous two films, but also moves beyond them with a story that raises the hair while it wrenches the heart. Though Shyamalan avoids sappy sentimentality, he nevertheless hits for the emotional home runs in this movie—a departure from the occasional chill of his previous films.
In Signs, Shyamalan tries a few new things. The opening of the film drops the viewer into the middle of a waking anxiety dream, with odd dialogue, off-kilter images, no music and a symphony of nerve-jangling sounds—barking dogs, screeching birds, rustling corn leaves. The narrative unfolds in a series of peculiar expository scenes reminiscent of Twin Peaks, while subtly ratcheting up the tension. Things get stranger for the characters, and that strangeness is only underscored by
the banality of the setting.
But the film never loses touch with the emotional reality of Gibson's character, a wounded man with haunted eyes, and Gibson shows once again that he is able to transcend his action-hero persona to get to the core of his role. All of the actors, right down to 6-year-old Breslin, keep a strong hold on their humanity, even as the story gets truly weird. Special mention must be made of Jones, a stage actor who brings dignity and humor to what could have been a perfunctory role.
Shyamalan also demonstrates again that he is a master of suspense and tension. Shot from the point of view of the characters, Signs is scary as hell, without resorting to heavy special effects. The movie barely leaves the Hess' farm homestead, adding to a sense of claustrophobia. The frights in this film come from the side, not head-on, and the fear is two parts anticipation and one part surprise. Fans of the director's work will also recognize the use of familiar leitmotifs—color flashes, complex sound design, glass and reflection imagery.
