I didn't care for this movie when it first came out, when I saw it on the big screen. I wasn't doing IMDb reviews back then, so I revisit those films prior to fifteen years ago that I might have seen but never commented on. My initial reluctance concerned how the story line veered off from a psychological thriller into a sci-fi flick, without considering the context of 'Father' Graham Ness's (Mel Gibson) insight into his 'two groups of people', who he defined as those who looked at luck or coincidence as confirming either their own hope versus fear. People with hope view coincidence as a sign that someone is watching over them, while those with fear feel that they're out in the world alone and on their own. Graham fell into the second camp, his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) felt comfortable in the first category.
The entire story in my estimation, hinged on the way Graham was scarred by the death of his wife in a senseless accident. Unable to come to grips with any logical reason for that to occur, Graham withdrew from the clerical life and gave up on his belief in a just and loving God. What director Shyamalan tries to do is close the circle on Graham's faith by indulging in 'signs', those little moments and occurrences in a person's life that seem to have no meaning in and of themselves, but when viewed in a larger context, have a way of coming together to resonate in a person's life. So we have 'see', and 'swing away', the two vital elements Graham needed to employ in order to save his son Morgan (Rory Culkin) from the deadly grasp of a vengeful alien being.
Now in terms of a personal sign, I had to get a kick out of little Bo Hess (Abigail Breslin) and her fickle taste in water. There are times my (now ten year old) granddaughter will tell me she doesn't like the water she's about to drink because it 'tastes old', or because it was lying around in a glass for a while. I try to wrap my head around the idea of water tasting 'old' and I can't do it, so I'll have to take her insistence as a means of tapping into some power I'm not aware of. Someday it might come in handy for, I don't know, an alien invasion or something along those lines.
The entire story in my estimation, hinged on the way Graham was scarred by the death of his wife in a senseless accident. Unable to come to grips with any logical reason for that to occur, Graham withdrew from the clerical life and gave up on his belief in a just and loving God. What director Shyamalan tries to do is close the circle on Graham's faith by indulging in 'signs', those little moments and occurrences in a person's life that seem to have no meaning in and of themselves, but when viewed in a larger context, have a way of coming together to resonate in a person's life. So we have 'see', and 'swing away', the two vital elements Graham needed to employ in order to save his son Morgan (Rory Culkin) from the deadly grasp of a vengeful alien being.
Now in terms of a personal sign, I had to get a kick out of little Bo Hess (Abigail Breslin) and her fickle taste in water. There are times my (now ten year old) granddaughter will tell me she doesn't like the water she's about to drink because it 'tastes old', or because it was lying around in a glass for a while. I try to wrap my head around the idea of water tasting 'old' and I can't do it, so I'll have to take her insistence as a means of tapping into some power I'm not aware of. Someday it might come in handy for, I don't know, an alien invasion or something along those lines.