M. Night Shyamalan has been hailed as the next Spielberg with such writing/directing/producing credits as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs & his new venture, The Village, and rightly so, in my humble opinion. This film is generally unlike The Sixth Sense & Unbreakable. That is precisely why Signs received mixed reviews from critics at the box office. Mel Gibson stars as the newly widowed ex-reverend/father Graham Ness. Along with his younger, ex-baseball hero brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) and two young children, son, Morgan and little daughter, Bo (Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin), the recently faithless ex-minister & his family experience accidents, death, crop circles, extra-terrestrials, and much more while director/writer/ producer Shyamalan pursues a spookfest with great (thank you, H.G. Wells) "War of the Worlds" undertones.
While the whole Ness clan re-evaluates their spiritual past, present and uncertain future, Graham & Merrill debate/discuss what kind of people they really were while growing up, what kind of people they are now and what the experience that they go through in the film makes them out to be in the end. There are many a spiritual idea/moral to this odd story by Shyamalan & certainly worth a look-see. Does the Ness family perceive a phenomenal occurrence as a series of spiritual signs and heavenly portents, or do they only believe in fate, chance, luck and divine providence?
Watch this oddly, extraordinary film and find out for yourself.
Happy Watching!
