 Signs - 08/04/02I'm not sure how to start this review, so I'll give you a little bit of history. Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense made so much money worldwide that M. Night Shyamalan was give $10 million for the script of Signs alone. The budget for the film was $62 million, and after having watched the film I would have to say that the majority of the budget went to the talent.Similar to this years Insomnia re-make, which had a ridiculous budget of over $50 million dollars (strictly for the actors), Signs has almost no special effects that might warrant such a huge budget. But, executives hedged their bets on Shyamalan (with good reason), and paid Gibson for his audience drawing power. This is the third time in a row that M. Night has proven his ability as a strong writer/director. As my neighbor put it, we were in good hands. There are no real parlor tricks... this is as straight a story as they come, with a consistent build-up that was handled very well, and a payoff that didn't completely disappoint, though I did find it rushed. I won't go into Gibson's work in too much detail. In fact, I'll just leave it at this: the man is an incredible actor, and proved again that he can work with all types of material. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible, as well. I was very impressed with his work on this film. I've enjoyed pretty much everything he's been in: Clay Pigeons, 8MM and Gladiator come to mind. The two child actors, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, were a wonder to see. They handled themselves very well, and it's obvious that M. Night knows how to handle children under the circumstances of a feature film. I couldn't get over the performances these kids gave. Cherry Jones is the only other real character to mention (besides M. Night, who portrayed Ray, the most acting he's done in his films thus far... and who didn't do a bad job). The only film I can remember Cherry Jones in was Erin Brockovich, in which she played a small, though important role. She did a pretty good job in this film... at first I thought she would be out of place with Gibson and Phoenix... but I think that not only did the material help make her character more prevelant, but also the direction from M. Night... kind of eased her into the role... In a lot of cases, when high profile actors are in films, their performances, their characters and their dialog are made specifically so that that one actor will stand out above all of the rest. It's something I haven't seen in an M. Night film yet. Willis, in both Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, is a perfect example of this, whose characters were very subdued, but at the same time, main characters. I think that this, above all else, is an important characteristic when regarding M. Night as a strong director. This was a Kennedy/Marshall release... their second team-up with M. Night Shyamalan. They originally worked with him on The Sixth Sense. This husband and wife team really know how to get the most out of films, and they also make some of the smartest producing decisions around. Sam Mercer was also a producer on this film (along with M. Night). Mercer has been with him from the beginning, working on all three of his mainstream films. One of the other talents that I have to add to this film (and who must have commanded a decent size of the budget) is Tak Fujimoto. But first, I would like to clarify something. One of the reasons I bring up all of these people, the cinematographers, the costume designers, the special effects supervisors, the producers... a lot of the people who read these reviews are trying to break into the business. Some of us are going to do so... some of us are even going to be able to write and direct their own films. I, for one, think it is VERY important to know who is doing what, and what they've accomplished in the past. I don't know how many people know who Tak Fujimoto is... and I'm just using him as an example... I could very well mention Dean Cundey, or Syd Mead, Alexandra Byrne, George Gallo, Adrian Biddle, Anne Coates or Mary Sweeney. What would happen if you came up to these people, or were introduced to them... and you didn't know who they were? I understand you can't know everyone... but understand that when I mention these people, I'm not name dropping. I'm trying to get you to know who some of the exceptionally talented people are in Hollywood... so if you happen to work for them... you'll know what they've done in the past, and that your project is in good hands. It's the reason why people like Jonathan Demme, John Hughes, Tom Hanks, Cameron Crowe and M. Night Shyamalan hire guys like Tak Fujimoto. Tak has been a cinematographer since 1973. His first time behind the camera was for Terrence Malick's Badlands. He would follow that up with Jonathan Demme's first film, Caged Heat. The duo would shoot a large number of films together in the future, including:
The Truth About Charlie (2002) The man is a genius behind the camera... not only because of the work he's done with Demme, but his other work as well. The Sixth Sense, That Thing You Do!, Devil in a Blue Dress, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink... his work is solid, across the board, and it's no wonder why directors trust him with their work. His work on Signs was incredible. The lighting, the choices of camera movement, shots, blocking... all done in collaboration with M. Night to give us an incredible film to look at. We hear about television shows, of sightings, experiences... there's been a build-up of this kind of material for years. The crop circles of late have always been hoaxes. But this film took the subject matter and gave it a pulse. M. Night handled suspense, intrigue, doubt, faith, coincidence and basic fear very well. Even though he chose to only give us the perspective of a single family (though we see and hear newscasts)... he used the news to escalate our fears... something the news does all the time. He used reports very cleverly... and amateur video footage... and glimpses of movement... noises... communications. Incredible work. I left that film on edge. Dark places, noises, aliens, ghosts... when they are handled in film well... that fear stays with you. Man, it stayed with me. I slept with the light on last night. So, I'll be picking up the DVD, when it comes out. It's a straight forward film with the pay-off at the end... and a linear narration with some flashbacks that, at the end, did not belong where they were inserted. I think it became more of a hamhanded segment, spelling it out for movie-goers who weren't paying attention, which is a shame. Again, a very well done film with incredible acting and fantastic directing. I read an article heralding M. Night as the next Spielberg. I'll be able to offer an opinion after his next film comes out.
|