Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Abigail Breslin
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Video: 1.85:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9, 1080p HD
Audio: Uncompressed PCM 5.1, English DD 5.1, French DD 5.1, Spanish DD 2.0
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Storyboards, Trailers
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Length: 106 minutes
Rating: ****
M. Night Shyamalan has almost pigeon-holed himself with movies that rely on a major twist near the ending, a revelation so surprising that it throws your entire perspective on what you’ve watched up to that point completely out of balance. Unfortunately, it requires a great deal of moviemaking skill to pull off such a surprise ending, and while M. Night was generally successful with such blockbusters as The Sixth Sense and The Village, the movie going public rapidly grows tired of a continually formulaic approach. They start looking for keys to the secret, rather than enjoying the craftsmanship of the movie at hand, and pray that no one who’s seen the movie beforehand reveals its secret. Shyamalan, obviously a student of the Hitchcock school, has the habit of giving himself generous cameos in all of his films (he’s not that great an actor), rather than following Hitchcock’s example of understated effectiveness. Fortunately, Signs strays somewhat from M. Night’s basic formula, and essentially just tells a story, rather than saving the bang for the ending. It helps tremendously when you’ve got top-notch acting talent on board such as Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix and the soon to be Oscar-nominated (for Little Miss Sunshine) Abigail Breslin in her onscreen debut.
The story surrounds Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson), a former minister and farmer who, due to some great tragedy, has obviously lost his faith. One morning, he’s awakened by his daughter’s screams, and he discovers that part of his cornfield has been flattened in an intricate “crop-sign” pattern. Only when the camera pulls away for a more panoramic view do you get an impression of the scale of the damage and the intricacy of the pattern. He, of course, calls the police, certain that he’s been the object of pranksters. As the days pass, however, it soon becomes obvious from television broadcasts that the crop signs are appearing worldwide, and may be foreshadowing an impending contact with visitors from another galaxy. Several incidents in town also allude to the nature of Hess’s great tragedy.
While the film is far from perfect, I still found much to enjoy throughout, and Shyamalan is becoming quite adept at providing comic relief to the building suspense. The expert acting jobs turned in by everyone in the movie only heightens the sense of realism, and helps to increase empathy from the viewer for Hess and his family. On the other hand, the whole alien thing just seems a bit contrived, and when the aliens finally make their appearance, they’re just not quite as menacing as I might have hoped for.
Technically, the disc is quite good – the image quality is a little less than eye-poppingly pristine, but it’s nonetheless serviceably good. It’s not that the image is in any way bad – it just seems a little flat when compared to the best Blu-ray discs. The PCM uncompressed audio content is, however, reference quality, and it greatly enhanced the movie’s overall presentation. Integration of the surround channels is seamless, and the impact of music and dynamic transients is quite startling and adds a much-needed measure of dramatic oomph to the requisite scenes. The extras add a nice touch to the overall package, although the inclusion of another very early totally amateur film by M. Night is getting pretty tiresome – talk about a towering ego! Well, I guess this is his only opportunity to ever get these works in print. Otherwise, highly recommended.
— Tom Gibbs
