Signs
|
Experiencing traumatic events, such as prolonged illness, psychological stress, physical injury, or death of a loved one, crosses all boundaries of human division; rich and poor, young and old, religious or secular. Regardless of cultural background, patterns emerge for individuals struggling with these events. Questions or speculation about the nature of Humanity's position in the universe often appears in these consistent patterns of behavior following traumatic events.
If you read the previous paragraph without thinking "For god's sake, get to the point!" you may be able to watch Signs without throwing something at the screen. This movie is a slow meditation on religious faith, played out as an ex-reverend struggles to reconcile his feelings of doubt and betrayal after his wife is killed in an accident. There are some things in it about aliens and agroglyphs, but they're not important. If you saw the previews and thought "Cool! Mel Gibson beats up the aliens!" you'll probably want to watch Independence Day or even Close Encounters of the Third Kind instead. Not to wander to far into behind-the-scenes analysis, but as writer/director/producer, M. Night Shyamalan doesn't have someone saying "No" to him, so he just does what he wants. Usually this means a director goes from making successful, popular movies to obscure, aimless, self-indulgent films that lose money (Sixth Sense, then Unbreakable, then Signs, then…?). Remember that you read it here first….
If you liked the movies below, you'll probably like this one (and visa versa):
Eight-Facet Info Rating, rated on a scale of 0 (None) to 4 (Lots!)): |