100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #71: Signs (2002)

Written & Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.

M. Night Shyamalan has evolved into an equally beloved and controversial figure amongst film fans. His initial run from his debut The Sixth Sense to The Village is unmatched in recent film history, yet afterwards his filmography has included the universally reviled The Last Airbender and, more recently, films like 2023’s baffling Knock at the Cabin. Regardless, it’s pretty apparent especially from his earlier films that Shyamalan has real talent, most especially when working on smaller-budget, more intimate thriller dramas.

From a budget of $72 million (for reference, Spider-Man released the same year with a whopping budget of $139 million) came Shyamalan’s third feature, directly following the success of his last film, Unbreakable. It follows a widowed Episcopal priest (Mel Gibson), his two children (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin), and brother (Joaquin Phoenix) who all live together on a small Pennsylvania farm. Since his wife’s tragic and sudden death, Gibson’s Graham Hess has lost his faith and hung up his collar, but his newfound cynicism involving the seemingly unexplainable is shaken when mysterious crop circles begin to appear all over his farm. However, when his son, Morgan (Culkin) is quick to associate these circles with an act of God, Hess begins to go down a rabbit hole of rationalizations to find out what’s really going on: both to ensure his family is safe from any danger but also to avoid reconciling with any possible supernatural realities around him.

Despite the layers of doubt and rationalism that Hess has supplanted his faith and vocation with, it becomes apparent that his hope in the divine still remains deep down, like during one conversation with his daughter, Bo (Breslin) while tucking her in to bed:

GRAHAM: What are you thinking about?

BO: Why do you talk to mom when you’re by yourself?

GRAHAM: It makes me feel better.

BO: Does she ever answer back?

GRAHAM: No.

BO: She doesn’t answer me either.

Despite his grief and anger with God over the apparently meaningless death of his wife- whose final words to him didn’t even make sense- deep down Graham has some hope of seeing his wife again someday. Graham’s vocation as a minister is also one he cannot fully run away from: where once he preached words of comfort amidst tribulation to his flock at his church, once the strange events start occurring around his house he must also provide equivalent solace and assurance to his two children. Once the “signs” start emerging all over town- and the world- Graham even gets asked by a local pharmacist (presumably one of his former parishioners) for confession, her being afraid that the end times are near.

Graham’s brother, Merrill (Phoenix, in one of his best roles), is almost the opposite of his hardened, cynical brother: aside from providing welcome comic relief throughout the film his character proves to have a big heart stemming from his almost childlike innocence. A failed minor-league baseball hopeful back in his day, he still keeps the bat he made two local home run records with on the wall at the house. When an old classmate teases him about the fact that he also had the strikeout record, Merrill simply replies, “Felt wrong not to swing”. Merrill’s impetuousness and tendency to act immediately upon a thought is contrasted with Graham’s reticence to engage with the world around him and to move on his life.

Faith is a road that is not accessible to those who have hardened their hearts and resigned themselves to the ways of the world: it requires a disposition of humility and vulnerability that is often found in children rather than adults. When we grow up we begin to make more and more decisions for ourselves the more independent we get, and oftentimes many of those choices lead us to painful experiences that can lead us to distrust God rather than realize that we made a bad choice. Tragic events that happen outside of our control can lead to questioning of either God’s existence or His motives for our life, and can lead to a person to attempt to exert more and more control over their lives to an unhealthy degree to avoid any more suffering.

But the lesson of this film- without giving too much away- is that God’s love never goes away even amidst the bad things that happen to us, manifested through the supreme mystery of His Divine Providence. We can be so caught up in the perfect planning of our lives that we neglect to notice the “signs” that God has either left for us or is actively waving in front of our noses: each sign a reminder of the immense love that God has for each and every one of us.

With Signs, Shyamalan wanted to craft a film that would be “inspired and childlike” after the “somberness” of Unbreakable, as he states in a 2020 interview with the Ringer:

I think my somberness at the time of Unbreakable came off in the film. If you see it, it’s a very burdened movie. There was this weird moment where, strangely, I went to Denny’s. I was sitting there and seeing a family that was silent, and they were eating. I saw a couple that was quiet, and they were eating. And I was saying to myself: I can make movies that are burdened, and that’s honest for me. But I was looking at those people in the Denny’s, and I knew they were coming to my movies, and I wanted to make them feel better. So I called Disney and I said, ‘I want to make a movie that is just joyous, and doesn’t have that lens of burden on it.’ It can have a lot of conflict in it, but the voice, the angle, I wanted it to be inspired and childlike, almost.

While many of the characters in this film- especially Graham- do carry a burden throughout the story, there is a surprisingly light touch to this film, with a lot of humor and character moments that can almost be jarring given the heavy subject material at hand. Yet these moments of levity give it that “childlike” sense that Shyamalan was aiming to achieve, and even seemingly random character quirks pay off in a big way in the film’s beautifully intricate finale.

Signs remains one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best films, made in a time where audiences could appreciate a fundamentally Christian story without feeling the urge to nitpick it to death on the Internet. James Newton Howard’s score is as mesmerizing as his prior and subsequent collaborations with the director, and the ensemble of actors- especially the children- brings Shyamalan’s brilliant script to life in a charming and engaging way. Despite the writer/director’s emphasis in later interviews that he is not a religious person, it’s another testament to Providence that this film is as spiritually enriching and thought-provoking as it is.