SIGNS (2002) Mmm, I'm hungry for corn now Gotta love that M. Night Shyamalan. His movies play out like the opposite of the modern blockbuster. They're not sarcastic, trendy, "action-packed", "fast-paced", "clever", mean-spirited, or loaded with teenagers unknowingly ingesting things squeezed out of animals or other teenagers. It's a wonder they make any money at all. His fifth movie, Signs (ha, bet you haven't seen the first two, have ya? I know I haven't), continues his tradition of taking weird, mythologized subject matter and dealing with it in a humane, level-eyed and low-key way, sure to stick him with the "auteur" tag soon enough if it hasn't already. Ghosts, superheroes, and now...crop circles. Now, I can feel your scepticism all the way over here. Crop circles? Is he kidding? C'mon, crop circles are about as mysterious these days as the Piltdown man. Old Limeys, that's what makes crop circles, right? Well, hell, maybe not, they made SOME crop circles. Were there more? Anyway, Mel Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a lapsed minister of some sort (he's a priest, but he has kids, so...somebody fill me in here) (Sept. 8 - somebody did fill me in. Must be an Episcopalian priest. Thanks Kelly!). He lapsed because his wife died in a rather horrifying fashion, the kind of thing that'd make just about anybody want to grab God by the neck, give him a good shake and cry out "What were you thinking?!?!?" He lives on a farm with his brother (Joaquim Phoenix, 18 years Gibson's junior) and his two kids. Then the crop circles start happening, not just to him, but all over the world, it seems. The kids are convinced it's aliens, the brother thinks it's nerds run amok (loved the scene in the car where he explains his theory). Graham doesn't know what the hell to believe, but things are only getting weirder - one of the family dogs goes berserk, scary shit happens on the news, and everybody's got aliens on the brain. I liked how the motivations and reasoning behind what unfolds is kept vague. The kids, convinced that the crop circles are signs of an impending alien invasion, dig into a book about aliens and tell us some of the things the author thinks. This way, we're given a possibility that seems to work just fine in the context of the movie, even though it probably isn't entirely correct. At any rate, it's just the opinion of a (presumably fictitious) author - as dismissable as any peanut-gallery theory conjured up by anyone watching the film. That it actually mostly plays out that way, we can dismiss or accept at our leisure. Humor in a movie like this is usually a tension-killer, intentionally or otherwise. Signs has a fine sense of humor, and it works so well mostly because it doesn't defuse the tension. It's done with such a light touch that after we enjoy a good giggle, and we note that the characters are still in as much muck as they were a minute before, the suspense is still there, both in scenes where danger is clearly very close to the surface (like the later ones inside the house), or the ones where it's more uncertain and vague (earlier scenes out in the fields). The "man who lost his faith" theme has been done to death, and I really don't think this movie does much to distinguish that aspect of itself from a zillion previous movies where a man finds his faith again. Actually, for once, I wanna see a movie where a guy who loses his faith finds more reason than ever to abandon it, and lives happily with his new self- or humanity-based approach to life. As to what the crop circles are, and what they're signalling the arrival of, it wouldn't be fair of me to reveal, not that you haven't heard already. Unfortunately, it's when all this is revealed that the plot starts getting wheezy and credibility-stretching. For example, a "silver bullet" is found which is, to say the least, fairly commonly found, often falling right out of the sky. Resolving the crop circle issue in this story is done in far too convenient and simplistic a fashion; plot might be a secondary consideration in a movie such as this, which is more about making interesting harmonies and disharmonies between the characters and the world they inhabit, but it shouldn't have gone entirely out the window at the end. Signs and Shyamalan both work best with what they're NOT showing you - and that goes for the plot as well. Not everything had to be resolved so neatly, or resolved at all. Sometimes, a movie is served best by not explaining itself. Still, that tension doesn't stop. Shyamalan knows how to turn screws, and this is easily his most suspense-oriented movie so far, even going so far as to include a terror-filled scene in a dark cellar with something trying to get in. There's less heartstring-tugging here than in The Sixth Sense, but more than in Unbreakable. The characters are well-written and -performed, the dialogue's great, it's beautifully shot, its slow pace works for it instead of against it...it's just that the plot peters out at the end. I'm having an easy time forgiving Signs for this, because plot is not one of its foremost concerns. This could've ruined everything in a more story-oriented film. Signs is glorious for about 85% of its length. It's that last 15% (and it might be less than that, I wasn't measuring) where the engine starts sputtering and nasty black smoke starts coming out of its tailpipe. You might want to take it in for repairs, but it still gets across the finish line a few laps ahead of just about everything else around. 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