Harry here... Quint there... Read on...
Ahoy, squirts! The one and only crusty wonder-boy, Quint, here with my look at M. Night Shyamalan's newest masterpiece, Signs.
Be forewarned... This is going to be a gushing review the likes of which you rarely see out of me. I like a lot of movies, at least I like a lot more movies than I dislike. I dig a lot of movies and recommend a lot of movies. I'm of the school that a movie has to prove itself a few times over to be called a brilliant film and has to stand the test of time to be called a Classic. SIGNS is a brilliant film and is well on its way to becoming a classic. Entertaining, moving, frightening, never uninvolving or ridiculous... Just right. SIGNS is could literally be the movie that the term "I laughed, I cried, I screamed" was coined for.
I'm not embarrassed to say that SIGNS is one of the best movies I've seen this year and in all likelihood will be in my top 2 or 3 flicks I'll see this year. I know there will be a lot of detractors out there, but I'm an unabashed fan of Shyamalan. The Sixth Sense knocked me on my ass and I've loved it ever since. Unbreakable was a damn cool movie which I dug the hell out of, but because it was essentially an origin story, it had all the build up without the super punch. Nevertheless, I still love Unbreakable if for nothing else the relationships between Bruce Willis and his son and Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson.
The man knows how to direct actors to get the best performances, he knows how to create tension so thick the audience nearly chokes on it. I don't know the man, so I don't know about all this stuff I hear about him being full of himself or overly demanding... I just know I love his films. He's the closest thing we have to Hitchcock right now and that makes me happy. Like Hitchcock, he sets his films, no matter how extraordinary the plotline, in the real world. He's done a ghost story and a superhero story in the real world. The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable both feel like they could happen in the world we live in. Now we have Shyamalan's SIGNS... Which is also the real world with real people living during extraordinary circumstances.
I knew nothing more than the cast and what the trailers told me when I went into this movie and I'll be goddamned if I spoil any of this movie for you folks. The main issue of this film is faith... Wait-wait-wait-wait... Come back! Sit down... I know that doesn't sound so exciting... maybe a bit preachy... It's not. Take it from me, a hellbound heathen who usually rolls his eyes when anything even remotely preachy starts happening in films... Even though this movie is about faith, and lack thereof, it never preaches.
Now for the tension. From the opening credits backed by James Newton Howard's amazingly creepy score to the brilliant atmosphere of shadows and deep dark scary places created by top cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense) to the haunted and beaten look in Mel Gibson's eyes... This movie is just a perfect thriller. There's no way around it. You care for the characters, in this case a family headed by Mel Gibson. There are moments of unbelievable tension and fright, but also moments of immaculate warmness and love. There's comedic relief in the movie that actually works and helps the audience breathe after having their hearts jump into their throats. It's not wacky or full of fart and dick jokes. The humor is human. Real.
That's where Shyamalan's talent shows through. By always making his characters real, no matter what the situation, he gives us, the audience, someone to grab onto, to relate to. Who can relate to Randy Quaid's drunk oaf character in ID4? Sure, he's fun to watch, but you never really feel anything for him. The terror in SIGNS is magnified because I don't want to see anything bad happen to Graham Hess (Gibson) or his family. The pain he feels, the love he feels, the anger he feels... I felt it, too. I love when a movie can work my emotions like that.
SIGNS is filmmaking at its best. We see characters on screen that cease becoming characters, but become something more... Not necessarily friends, but not just two-dimensional movie stars with their Hollywood brat child actor kids facing off with a rubber or CG "monster." When a film can make me feel something, stir up my emotions... whether it's a film like Casablanca or like Raiders of the Lost Ark or like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or like Signs... all completely different films that did it right.
The acting is top notch all around. Joaquin Phoenix, who looks freakishly like Mel Gibson's brother in this movie, gives an amazing and understated performance as Graham Hess's brother, Merrill. Gibson likewise gives a complex and exhausting performance as Graham Hess. Gibson almost always delivers, but he's in top form in this film. The Culkin spawn continues to invade Hollywood... Rory Culkin plays the oldest child in Gibson's family and does a pretty damn good job. He could have played it really over the top, but instead he plays it as a real child. Kudos to Rory. Abigail Breslin plays the youngest child in the film and boy is she a creepy looking kid. Don't get me wrong, she's very adorable, but there's just something about her line delivery and the dark eyes/pale skin mixture... Way to go, creepy little girl!
On to the ending. It's an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so everybody wants to know about the ending, which will be the most talked about part of the film, most likely. It's not a twist ending, let's get that out of the way. It is a little bit, but it's nowhere near the kind of ending that audiences have come to expect from Shyamalan. Moriarty said he felt the ending was fumbled a bit. I couldn't disagree more. What Shyamalan does, which is such a departure from his previous two films, is he lets the audience see the information in the film when he wants us to see it. He doesn't leave "clues" sprinkled here and there for the more astute viewers to pick up on and figure out. He chooses when to give us these clues and how he gives them to us.
I know exactly why he did it that way, too. Everybody I've ever talked to about The Sixth Sense that didn't like the movie or thought it was "OK" either had the ending ruined for them or figured it out early in the game. Shyamalan decided to not give us the pieces to put this puzzle together, but forces us to watch him put the pieces together, starting from the edge pieces in, gradually revealing the whole picture.
I cannot recommend SIGNS enough, especially if you're a fan of any of Shyamalan's work. This might not be the best FILM of the year, but it's hands down one of the best MOVIES of the year. I'll be seeing it again very soon, that's for damn sure. At any rate, I think it's about time to shove off. I have lots of packing to do before heading out to San Diego tomorrow for the huge Comic Con... Now if only I could find a bloody hotel for under $543,023 a night... but that's the real trick, isn't it? For all you San Diego geeks, I'll be around San Diego starting tomorrow (7/31) night through next Monday (8/5) morning. Drop me an email (aicnquint@aol.com) or call me on my cell phone (512-663-9146) if you're going to be around and want to say hi. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
