A Film Review of Signs and KPax
Faith and Family -- A Sign of the Times?
As
the first anniversary of 9/11 approached this September, the film capturing the
attention of many was M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs.” If you didn’t see it, be sure to
watch for the movie on video/DVD. A sci-fi thriller with both heart and humor,
the movie helped many deal with life’s ongoing terrors by portraying two
significant resources available to us. Viewers felt both the importance of
family -- of turning to those close to us -- and the importance of faith – of
belief in a God who signals his presence and power, even through the chaos of
life. Newsweek’s David Ansen rightly titled his review of the film, “Families,
Fear and Faith.”
The story is a straightforward one,
told without much of the pyrotechnics and quick cuts of the typical summer
adventure flick or sci-fi thriller. Think more of Hitchcock or Spielberg’s E.T. than Mission Impossible 2. Most of the action takes place
within the small rural farmhouse where Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his
children live. An Episcopal priest, he has lost his wife in a freak highway
accident, and with her his faith. But as the story unfolds (strange “signs”
appear in the cornfield of his farm; aliens attack), Graham moves back toward
faith, despite himself. And we cheer for him. Life simply is more than random
circumstance. It has a spiritual core that cannot be denied even in adverse
circumstance.
As we watched “Signs,” we often found ourselves on edge,
and so did others. We heard whispered behind us, “I never thought cornstalks
could be so terrifying.” But we all felt more than just fear. We came to care
for Graham and his children, even to root for them, as they were terrorized.
Our empathy for this loving family was real. We were amazed at how the director
created an alternate, yet believable, world of coincidences. Our emotions
jumped back and forth like a yo-yo as we entered into the story.
Like
his first mega-hit, “The Sixth Sense,” Shyamalan has used those closest to us, our
children, to explore how we might respond to the evil we experience. Can we get
so caught up with what life takes away, that we ignore what is most precious to
us? Can the innocence and trust of children lead us? Is life simply a chain of
random incidents without meaning or spiritual significance, or is there a
deeper Reality that fills us with wonder and hope, even given the
contradictions? Bad things happen to good people. How should good people
respond?
“Signs” was not the first sci-fi movie to
explore such themes, post 9/11, however. A movie also worth renting on
video/DVD is “K-Pax.” Another of Kevin Spacey’s recent movies exploring life’s meaning and
spiritual possibilities, it came out just after the World Trade Center
holocaust. Again the story is not simply about the disconcerting presence of
the mysterious; it is also about the transforming power of relationships.
Like Signs, K-Pax mixes humor, suspense and loving
relationship into an engaging story. A traveler named PROT arrives in New York
claiming to be an alien from the planet K-Pax. Sent to a mental hospital for
observation and diagnosis, he is discovered to have a baffling knowledge of the
universe, as well as a saint-like capacity to bring healing to his fellow
patients. PROT also can see light that the normal human cannot see, and he
likes to eat bananas whole, skin and all! As the movie unfolds, his
psychiatrist, Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges), is drawn more and more to believe in
PROT, even if he can’t intellectually accept his story. At the movie’s end, we
are left vaguely uncertain whether PROT is a mentally deranged person -- the
tragic consequence of a grizzly homicide, or an evolved being -- an
extraterrestrial.
As
with “Signs,”
the power of this sci-fi movie is not in its fast pace or its special effects. K-Pax has neither. Rather the movie finds
its twin center in the importance of relationships and the reality of Mystery.
The bond established between the two leading characters not only causes viewers
to question science’s ability always to provide the answer (the astronomer and the
psychologist are equally unable to explain PROT and what he knows); it also
turns us toward that which is precious in life, our family and our faith. PROT,
the mysterious outsider, a kind of “Christ figure,” causes Powell to reconnect
with his estranged family. Those in the mental hospital are healed as they put
their trust in PROT. Life has a wonder and significance that goes beyond what
our work-a-day world can provide.
As we continue post 9/11 to question
the loss of life and the reality of evil, Christians might take a lesson from
these Hollywood films. Life’s meaning is not found first of all in what we can
make (even a Trade Center), or in what we can figure out (why does evil
happen?), but in faith and family.
Robert K. Johnston and Catherine M. Barsotti
The Covenant Companion