M. Night Shyamalan just gets better and better. Instead of relying on the supernatural, this installment, again written and directed by Shyamalan, involves a family dealing with the extraterrestrial. The Hess family lives on a corn farm in a small Pennsylvania town. Graham (Mel Gibson) is a former Catholic priest whose wife died six months earlier and led him to lose his faith. His brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) moved to help out with the kids, Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin). Disturbance grows as the family first notices crop signs in their backyard. They are aided by Officer Paski (Cherry Jones) at first, and then they prepare at home for an alien invasion.

Gibson turns out an especially good performance and Shyamalan is once again successful with children. James Newton Howard’s score is as beautiful and intense as ever and is used at all the right times. Signs is tight, tense and continually edgy with minimal special effects. Not only is it frightening, but Shyamalan’s script is also full to the brim with often unexpected humor. Signs is just a fun watch from start to finish.

The most successful aspect of Signs, however, is the immensely rich script. Let me just provide a couple lines near the beginning as an example. After being called “father” by Officer Paski, Graham says, “Don’t call me father anymore,” and then looks off into the cornfield. She responds with, “What’s wrong?” and he replies, “I don’t hear my children.” The literal meaning of the lines are that Graham doesn’t want to be called “father” because he is no longer a priest and the problem at the moment is that he is worried that something might be wrong with his kids because he can’t hear them playing. Great.

But there’s more. Graham’s second line could be interpreted as a response to the question as a response to his first line. In this case Graham could be saying to not call him “father” because he is no longer a priest and is no longer doing his duties as one. Then after being asked what’s wrong, or “what’s wrong with calling you father,” he responds that he doesn’t hear his children – or pastoral children. He’s not doing what he should be doing for his congregation, not hearing his children, and thus doesn’t deserver to be called “father.”

In addition, since the loss of his wife, Graham has been somewhat more distanced from his own children, as is evidenced by various comments from Morgan. Graham knows this but is still in too deep of grief to do anything about it. Thus, the third reading of the lines suggests that he doesn’t deserve to be called father anymore because he can no longer hear, or is no longer listening to his children. This is true both emotionally as well as literally in that he isn't listening to what they are saying about the aliens.

The most powerful interpretation of the lines, however, is an initially blasphemous one. One of the themes throughout Signs is that Graham is angry with God for allowing his wife to die and basically for not looking out for him. He has dedicated his life to God and prays everyday, but his prayers aren’t being answered. Graham’s words could be interpreted as if he were talking as if he were God (as he does again near the end of the film). Graham is venting his frustration and saying, in essence, don’t call God “father” because he isn’t doing his job – he isn’t listening to his children.

The richness of Shyamalan’s script isn’t restricted to one line. It stays this strong throughout the whole movie. There is not space here to analyze every line as is done above, but the script does deserve a quick run through in which I want to point out important lines and the development of the primary theme.

The primary theme, of course, is Graham’s belief in God. Not just his belief, however, but his belief in God as a loving God who cares about him and his family.

In the beginning we are told in a number of ways that Graham doesn’t feel that God is responding to him. A little bit after the line spoken of above, Graham has a conversation with Bo about how he sometimes talks to his dead wife (or God). Bo asks, “Does she answer back?” and Graham replies, “No.”

But it isn’t just that God isn’t responding. We are given clues that suggest that Graham is the one not listening to God. When the family first has reason to believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life, Graham refuses to allow the family to have any contact with the media or anything that would bring them more information about the aliens or what is going on. He insists that they turn off the radio and TV because, according to Graham, “This is why we’re not watching TV [or praying] - people get obsessed.” Graham’s frustration about people obsessed over hearing about the aliens can easily be equated with his newfound belief that religious people are obsessed because of their insistence in constantly staying in contact with God.

Slowly throughout the film Graham begins to re-believe in God (and aliens) until he is eventually convinced that God is watching after him. The process comes in a number of actual experiences with aliens – four to be exact. Much like Ebenezer Scrooge's four visitations from spirits, the encounters slowly bring Graham back to be person he once was before.

Graham’s first encounter occurs as he’s out in the cornfield trying to scare the supposed trouble-makers away. On the way he tells the barking dog (or Christians) that, “You’re going to feel very silly when this all turns out to be make believe.” While he’s back amongst the crops he sees an alien leg and is frightened back to his house. The first thing he says when he gets back inside is, “OK. Let’s turn on the TV.” Graham may believe they exist, he may even believe God exists – it’s hard to tell. What we know for sure is that if Graham does believe in the existence of God, he’s convinced that He’s not the loving, caring God who is concerned about him. He’s not the God Graham has always believed in. He’s not the God Graham has dedicated his life to. He’s some strange, uncaring God; uninterested in the lives of His children.

This brings us to the conversation that Graham has with his brother Merrill that deals expressly with whether or not there’s a loving God out there or not. Graham tells Merrill that people divide into two groups, people who believe in miracles and people who believe that the occurrences of life are simply by chance. After Merrill humorously declares that he’s the type that believes in miracles, Graham talks about the moment his wife, Colleen, died. In her final moments, moments which would be believed to be the time to say that which is most important, Colleen just recites a memory of one of Merrill’s baseball games and says “Graham, see…tell Merrill to swing away.” Graham concludes that, “There is no one watching out for us. We are all on our own.”

Just before Graham’s second encounter, he is introduced to a book by his children that talks about aliens (and could be comparable to The Bible). Graham scoffs at the book until his young daughter earnestly informs him that, “This is serious.” Graham asks his son who wrote the book and Morgan replies, “Scientists [or Christians] who have been persecuted for their beliefs.”

Graham is drawn away from the book by a call from Ray Reddy (M. Night Shyamalan). Graham goes to Ray’s house to see what the problem is and Ray apologizes for being the one to accidentally kill his wife while falling asleep on the road. He explains that if he had fallen asleep at any other second nothing would have happened – that he had to fall asleep at that one moment to hit her, like it was meant to be. Graham accepts his apology and Ray takes off, leaving Graham to deal with the alien in his pantry. Graham returns home after his frightening encounter with the alien and asks Morgan, “What does that book of yours say…?”

Before the third encounter, Shyamalan reminds us once again what this is all about. After the family sits down to dinner that night, the kids want to bless the food. Conflict arises until Graham declares, “We aren’t saying a prayer. I am not wasting one more minute of my life on prayer.” He is slowly believing but it appears now that it is about more than just belief. Graham is bitter. Bitter that God would let his wife die. Angry that God isn’t watching over him.

The third encounter occurs as the aliens invade the house and nearly get a hold of Morgan. Graham and Merrill succeed in blocking their way, but Morgan is freaked out by the event and it triggers an asthma attack. At this point Graham reveals that he currently believes in God because he talks to him. He says, “I hate you.” At the prospect of Morgan’s death, Graham’s bitterness truly turns to hatred towards the indifferent God.

Ironically, this becomes what might be the most moving scene of the film, as we get the sense that God really is trying to respond to Graham. He does so through Graham’s own words. Just as Graham seemed to be talking on behalf of God earlier in the film when he says, “Don’t call me father…I don’t hear my children,” Graham appears to be speaking on behalf of God again without realizing it. While Morgan is in the asthma attack, Graham holds him and tries to calm him down, using the very words that God is trying to use to calm Graham down. Graham says, “Don’t be afraid…breath like me…stay with me…I know it hurts, be strong. It’ll pass…believe it is going to pass…you don’t have to be afraid…air is coming into our lungs…we are the same.”

But Graham still isn’t listening. He couldn’t hear his own words. The next morning, after being reprimanded by Merrill for being so scared, Graham admits that he didn’t think they would make it through the night. Everything is about to change for Graham, though. In a scene that some critics have called heavy-handed and which very well may be, Graham sees the alien, no longer by hand or leg, but upfront in its entirety. It’s at this point that Graham comes to realize that everything has been for a purpose. Bo’s drinking water, Morgan stumbling upon a book that was supposed to go somewhere else, Morgan having asthma, Graham forgetting the medicine, Merrill leaving baseball, and even Ray killing Colleen and Colleen’s final words to “see” and to “tell Merrill to swing away.”

The family is saved and eventually Morgan is revived. Morgan asks, “Did someone save me?” And then, in what is possibly the most powerful line of the film, Graham realizes his Father really has been looking after him all the time and he replies with the utmost humility, “Yeah. I think someone did.”

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