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Review of Signs...not the next Hitch!

Posted by reddmadder (A) on August 4, 2002 at 09:29:44

As an Admirer of M.Night's Sixth Sense I have to say that Signs is a big disappoinment and hopefully NOT a sign of a talented director taking a nose dive into one trick ponyville.
First off, I made sure not to read any reviews of the film since it's always better to go into a film with the least amount of info and hype
which can greatly affect your gut reaction to a film.
That said, here's what I saw last night..
Signs is basically a re-make of Hitchcock's The Birds.A supernatural event of global proportions occurs as seen and expierenced by a small group of people in a remote town.The event serves as a catalyst to force this small group of people to resolve whatever conflicts they may have with personal past life events.If you recall Hitchcock's The Birds the film starts off with the Tippi Hedrin character playing a narcisstic ,emotionally cold woman of wealth who starts a flirtation with the Rod Taylor character.The emotional lives of the 3 main characters(Jesssica Tandy as Rod's Mother)all have either expierenced a severe loss,or have a deep fear or loss of faith in the ability to love. Jessica's husband(Rod's father) has died leaving Jessica in a very emotionally remote and fragile state.Tippi grew up in a wealthy family ,devoting herself to wild parties with the European jet set.Tippi never had a loving Mother and Jessica is highly critical of her because of her privilaged life of non-comittment.That's the character 'conflicts in a nutshell.In Signs, Mel is an ex-priest who has lost his faith in God because of the loss of his wife in a tragic car accident 6 months prior.He aboandon's his priestly role and finds himself feeling bitter,resentful and a bit emotionally distracted by this horrific event.His brother Jaoquin decides to live with him during this period of transistion.Jaoquin is shown to be a man with a failed past,having been a famous minor league baseball player,who could have been in the majors(he now works in a gas station) if he hadn't held the record for most strike outs at bat.By the end of The Birds, Tippi is able to become emotionally involved with Rod and also finds her "Mother" in Jessica. Jessica has, by the film's end, regained her nuturing love which is expressed in her caring for Tippi(she goes into shock after an attack by the birds ) In contrast I think M.Night was trying to reach the same level of character arc but with a much less complex characters,and a major directorial miscalculation.(see later)In Signs,after the aliens have departed we find Mel returning to role as priest having regained his faith because of attack of the aliens.Joaquim is able to finally strike out with sucess(at the aliens)to help save the family from death...and that's about it for character arcs.The little girl saving glasses of water(which we find out later kill the aliens)and the little boy's asmathaic condition serve only as clever plot points that tie into a neat little ending.
Other note worthy similiarities:The characters in both films board themselves in their home hoping to wait it out against the intruders.
Mel and Jessica both take a ride to friends house midway thru the film to check on them.In Signs Mel discovers an alien,in The Birds Jessica discovers a ravished corpse.
I think the 3 major miscalculations of the director were...
1.Starting the film as an suspense film (Mel wakes up hearing cries)and then taking a u-turn into character development which made the middle of the film much too slow,unintentionally funny at times and taking the energy out of the film which was so nicely developed from the start.In contrast Hitchcock developed the character situations first ,then gradually let the birds intrude upon the characters towards a very climatic ending.
2.Failed opportunity when Mel discovers the alien at his friends house.The sequence should have and could have been much more of a scary ,dramatic set piece,but instead it's a one shock throwaway ...a big letdown.
3.the film should have had at least 3 good scary set pieces to sustain the middle of the film ,nothing would have suffered or would have compromised the ending by taking this approach but would have made it a much better film.
See Signs and The Birds and judge for yourself...

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Kimber Kable

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