The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 189 Days to go: 133
Movie #249: Signs
I’ll talk about The Sixth Sense a few posts from now, but I think it’s safe to say the expectations people had for M. Night Shyamalan after that success were unreasonable at best and impossible, in practice, to meet. I don’t deny that the man’s work definitely went off the rails after a bit, but his Unbreakable was a decent concept executed poorly (and before, apparently, the public was ready for a dark comic book story), and Signs is actually an interesting treatise on faith wrapped up in standard sci-fi tropes. And, really, if you look at The Sixth Sense as a sci-fi story about a kid with paranormal abilities rather than a ghost story which a shocking twist — which is a hindsight evaluation in and of itself — then basic sci-fi is all M. Night Shyamalan has ever done, so it’s kind of unfair for the public to bitch at him about it when they remember how much they look down on run-of-the-mill sci-fi for not being high art or whatever.
Signs takes the very commonly discussed phenomenon of crop circles and simply postulates that they are, in fact, caused by aliens. What if aliens have come to Earth, and what if they are not friendly. Really basic B-movie sci-fi stuff, right there. What Shyamalan does that’s interesting, though, is instead of making this your standard War of the Worlds global alien invasion story, he sets his tale on a small Pennsylvanian farm, in the house of former reverend and recent widower Graham (Mel Gibson), his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), his little boy Morgan (Rory Culkin) and his very young daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin). And they learn of the worldwide alien invasion the way most of us would — by watching television — even as they come face to face with their own unwelcome visitor.
That’s the long and the short of it, really, as far as the sci-fi goes. It’s not groundbreaking; it’s not even all that original. The aliens have a very silly and almost obvious weakness by which they are defeated, and they retreat post-haste. And most people seem to get caught up in this aspect of it, how the alien is stupid looking and the threat is both nonsensical and too easily resolved, but it’s sort of completely beside the point.
The point of Signs is that the death of Graham’s wife has left him with a crisis of faith, and the alien invasion, through various events and the last words of his wife that still haunt him, restores that faith. That’s all. There’s a reason for Morgan’s asthma, there’s a reason for Bo’s water obsession, and there’s a reason Merrill always felt right swinging his baseball bat. Shyamalan is saying that there’s a reason for everything, that there’s a greater purpose, that there’s some force out there looking out for us. Or looking out for this family, at least. It’s a movie about the existence of miracles instead of luck. It just happens to be wrapped up in some low-caliber sci-fi.
Mel Gibson was supposed to be the big name of this piece, but literally every other featured player is more interesting, including Cherry Jones as Officer Paski and Merritt Weaver in a tiny little role as the pharmacist. But it’s Graham’s family that really draws focus. Even little Abigail Breslin, as a tiny girl of six, exhibits an enormous amount of that talent and star quality she would come to be known for a few years later. And this is probably one of the last things Phoenix did before he really started getting weird. It has its merits.
I don’t really think Signs is a great movie, but it is an interesting movie in its way. For M. Night Shyamalan, at this point, that’s got to feel like a win. Right?
Viable Option 