Sci-Fi Movie Review - Signs

My girls and I watched the movie Signs yesterday - a 2002 sci-fi/drama movie starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.  IMDB description:   A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.


I never get tired of this movie.  I know what happens but I still hide my eyes in certain parts and get teary in others.  On the surface, it's about "signs" left in the form of crop circles all over the world and the world dealing with the idea that earth has been visited by extra-terrestrials.  


The family in focus is barely surviving after a tragedy has shaken them to the core.  Mel Gibson's character Graham has turned his back on God and his position as a reverend of the local church.  The youngest child, played gorgeously by Abigail Bresler, has a hang-up about drinking water, and the older son, played by young Rory Culkin, suffers from asthma and takes life too seriously.  Joaquin Phoenix is Merrill, their uncle, who once was a promising baseball player, and is now living with them in the house and going through his own self-esteem issues.


Because of an emminent attack by ETs, the family must come together and Dad must rise up and protect them.  Lacking faith, he is trying to muster up the courage to defend his family and to make decisions.  Where he might have relied on God before, he now is blaming Him and angry with Him.  


Graham has a discussion with Merrill about the perspective of coincidence -  about there being two groups of people who look at a lucky situation in different ways.  Group 1 sees it as a sign, that someone is up there watching out for them, which leads to hope. Group 2 sees it as pure luck, a happy turn of chance.  But whatever happens happens and they are doing it alone, which ultimately fills them with fear.  Graham then asks, "See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"  Merrill states that he's a miracle man.  Graham then states that there is no one watching out after them and that they are alone.  This presents the deeper level of the movie - whether everything happens for a reason.


This is not just a believers movie, but I see Signs as more than just an alien movie.  I think that things do happen for a reason, things that seem inconsequential serve purpose, and that bad things that happen can be turned around and serve good purpose.  I would consider myself a part of Group 1, that I am being watched out for.  I see signs of God everywhere and I am filled with great hope.


But I leave this to judge for yourself - I recommend this drama/sci-fi/mystery/thriller movie.  There are a couple of intense scenes that might disturb younger viewers and there are a few expletives, said in distress.




Do you see yourself in Group 1 or Group 2?  Signs or coincidences?  Does everything happen for a reason or que sera, sera?  Let's talk movies and don't forget the popcorn!