Movies - Monday, November 30
The Age
Thursday November 26, 2009
Signs (2002)Channel Seven, 9.30pmIN HIS mid-career prime €” i.e. before he jumped the shark with Lady in the Water €” M. Night Shyamalan's approach was to take a concept that's long been the property of the low-rent and then dissect it with an artisan's focused gaze: the lurid is replaced with gravitas, exploitation by a slow-building intensity. In The Sixth Sense, a little boy sees ghosts; in 2000's Unbreakable, an unassuming man discovers he has a superpower; and in Signs, a rural family must deal with the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. The first indication that something is amiss comes when Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), a widowed farmer and former priest, awakens one morning to find giant crop circles in the form of arcane symbols have appeared in his cornfield. As the situation escalates, Shyamalan turns the focus inwards. Graham doesn't become a key figure in an expanded plot; you don't get masses of exposition from the President's advisers on Air Force One. The information flow is stifled, just enough to ratchet up the tension but without providing clarity. Shyamalan has little interest in any social structure larger than the family. The story is a faith parable, both for the individual and the group, with references to "three cities in the Middle East" suggesting the cliche of human differences being settled by an external threat. Shyamalan draws a strong performance from Joaquin Phoenix as Graham's disaffected brother Merrill, but nothing can atone for the man in a rubber suit.
© 2009 The Age
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