And Diversions (Signs (DVD))

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Signs (DVD)
Date:	20/09/02 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good child actors for a change, Nice poster

Disadvantages: Poor script, Even poorer plot, See opinion!

Okay I can be a bit oblivious sometimes. During the breakdown chat critic session that followed the viewing of the film I casually asked my friend who 'that bloke' was playing the main character. I misheard the answer and rambled on about Matt Gibson and how I thought I'd seen him in something else. Well how should I know what he looked like? Of course it's Mel Gibson as the rest of the planet knows.

Anyway Mel, Matt - much of a muchness really. Actually I do quite like him as an actor (now I've remembered the other films he's been in) but somehow this film just didn't do it for me - despite the hype and the rather glam promotional site.

I think I first saw an ad for this film on the net and it was the words 'crop circle' that immediately got my interest. This beautiful, mysterious, wonderful phenomena was about to get some airtime - to be weaved into a film exploring the possibilities and messages they communicate - well so I thought anyway.

I went to the official website which you can find at http://bventertainment.go.com/movies/signs/index.h tml and took a good look round. Flash in every sense of the word I love the main poster design. It evokes a sense of drama, mystery and awe. Carefully designed, the site really wet my appetite to see the movie. My enthusiasm grew more as I discovered Signs was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan who also wrote one of my favourite films 'The Sixth Sense'. I watched the trailers (which take ages to load) and decided yes - this is a film I want to see. I deliberately didn't read any reviews of the film as I wanted to make my own mind up about it. In my head it was a case of - well if it's about crop circles I'll like it. Oh dear...

Well for the first half and hour I had icecream - Ben and Jerry's scrummy chocolately stuff that tasted of heaven and help pass the time whilst Shyamalan and characters figured out what the hell the
story was actually about. We get introduced to lapsed priest Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), who lives in an out of the way house surrounded by fields and fields of corn. With him are his two young children Bo and Morgan and his brother Merril who came to live with the family when Graham's wife was killed in a car accident. The accident has shattered his family and his faith. There are weird things going on; circles appearing in the corn, things that run faster than the wind, dogs acting strangely. The film tries desperately to build up the tension and about 45 minutes into it, it finally manages to snag a bit of attention from me (possibly because I'd finished my icecream).

Little Abigail Breslin (Bo) is brilliant and basically steals the show. For one so young she acts her heart out and makes her character believable. Rory Culkin, despite being related to the other one (that'll be Macauley) also does well as the quiet brother who suffers from asthma (and don't you just know that's going to be used as a dramatic device somewhere).

Without giving too much away, the storyline concentrates on the appearance of crop circles across the world and what this might mean for humankind. Unfortunately though, apart from the odd bit of research thrown in the film fails dismally to address all the possibilities of the phenomena, preferring to poke fun instead. Afterwards when talking about it over coffee with my friends I came to the conclusion that the whole setting was actually a device to write a family drama. It felt as if someone said 'oooh look we haven't done anything about crop circles and that'll get the punters in 'cos it's weird'. Shyamalan also throws in a whole thread about synchronicity because it is important in parnormal worlds then realising that a lot of people don't really get this rams the point home as if the audience are stupid. It's badly handled when it could have been so beautifully exposit
ional.

There are occasional humerous scenes - the tin hats made me laugh. But also I felt there was a lot of unnecessary jibing at those of us who practice and/or believe in the paranormal. Whether this was intended I don't know - perhaps it was simply that that research was so poor that's how it came across.
The tension does begin to build around half and hour or so towards the end. My friends jumped at a couple of scenes although I have to say I didn't. I do like the fact that Shyamalan has concentrated on atmosphere rather than effects so uses the camera well (look out for the tv scene is all I'm saying!) but even this doesn't really lift it for me.

The whole 'man loses faith, man returns to faith' is crass. I could see the last scene coming from about 15 minutes in - the typical cheesy ending that makes you want to see the main character shot at point blank range after the credits. The only scene I felt particularly well written was when Rory suffers an asthma attack in the basement and both he and Mel Gibson manage to pull on the heartstrings - just a little.

The script wobbles around the story but the actors do their best with it. Unfortunately Shyamalan seems to think that we will miss his subtle devices concerning water and again chooses to ram the point home as with the syncronity.

I can't say anything about the score - was there one? Whatever it was I don't recall it so I am assuming general background music to tide us over whilst the camera sweeps across the fields (shots which are impressive at least).

I know I've been absolutely scathing here but really can't think of anything particularly good to say about this film. Perhaps had I known I was in for a family drama I might have viewed it a little differently. I did spend quite a bit of time in anticipation simply because I was waiting for the interesting stuff to kick in. But then I am not adverse to gentle
explorative drama's and I have seem many handled much better than this. I did feel slightly duped by the advertising.

The two stars are for Abigail and Rory, Mel Gibson because he can act regardless of what the script is like and for a very fine poster for the movie.

Oh and for the icecream too.

Summary: