*Spoiler Reflections* On Religion in Signs

This article contains spoilers of M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs (starring Mel Gibson)

Which is better, a pie in the face or a pie on the table? A pie can't be eaten after it's been slapped in someone's face. A pie on the table, though, is ready and waiting to be enjoyed at its eater's leisure. The same can be said for movies. Filmmakers have two choices when they set out to make a movie: slap the viewer in the face with a message, or invite the viewer to enjoy the message at his or her leisure. Unfortunately, most Christian filmmakers choose the former.

Because of this, I am not a fan of movies made by Christian groups. Once, I tried to watch a Kendrick brothers film - Facing the Giants. I made it through ten minutes before I turned it off. I could see exactly how the story would go, and exactly how it would end. I could probably even paraphrase The Line that would tell the viewers exactly what the message of the movie was. The movie was predictable, and would just slap me with its message, over and over and over again. Don't get me wrong; sometimes people need to be slapped with a message. But not in movies.

Now I'll reveal the real reason I'm writing this blog post: Plugged In ticked me off. I watched Signs, M. Night Shyamalan's movie about faith. Curious about Plugged In's review of the movie, I went to the website and checked it out. I was unpleasantly surprised. The reviewer was disappointed in the way the movie portrayed Graham's renewal of faith. To quote the reviewer, "It's a windblown faith based less on God's remarkable and unchanging character than on how smoothly life is going at the moment." Respectfully, I couldn't disagree more.

When Graham's son Morgan survives because of his asthma, Graham realizes that "Someone" saved him. In the next scene, which is the final scene of the movie, we see Graham wearing his priestly collar. He has obviously renewed his commitment to God. Does he need to be shown praying to God, something he refused to do earlier in the movie? No. Besides, how could M. Night have shown Graham making a daily commitment to God, through good times and bad, without either drawing out the movie or putting in a very cheesy, slap-in-the-face line or series of lines? To me, the brief ending M. Night used is more than adequate for the story's purposes.

In the end, because there's only one "footnote" scene at the end of the movie, viewers walk away from Signs remembering the moment when Graham realizes that there are no coincidences, and that Someone is looking out for us. That moment has more power than a hundred scenes describing Graham's renewed commitment to God.