2002, 2 hrs, Rated PG-13 for some frightening moments. Dir: M. Night Shyamalan. Cast: Mel Gibson (Graham Hess), Joaquin Phoenix (Merrill Hess), Rory Culkin (Morgan Hess) Abigail Breslin (Bo Hess), Cherry Jones (Officer Caroline Paski), Patricia Kalember (Colleen Hess).

I love the simplicity with how the Sandy Springs 8 movie theater's guide, Movie Facts, illustrates Signs: "A farmer is challenged to find the truth behind a 500-foot design of circles and lines that have been inexplicably carved into his crops." Whew! Talk about describing this barnburner in the lamest of descriptions.

Yeah, there's a crop circle in the "farmer's" corn, but the farmer is Mel Gibson and he's really an ex-Episcopalian priest who lost his faith following his wife's untimely death. Gibson lives on the farm with his two kids, played by Rory Culkin (yes, of that Culkin clan) and Abigail Breslin, who is absolutely precious as the young daughter. Also on the farm is younger brother Joaquin Phoenix, a former minor league ballplayer and ordinary 20-something male in rural Pennsylvania.

Just knowing that it's a Shyamalan film had me tightly wound before Signs even got through the credits. I tell ya, Newsweek may have gotten it right in labeling him the next Spielberg. Of course, to do so Shyamalan needs to come out with a more family-friendly PG picture that doesn't deal so much in death, or at least focuses more on the human spirit than the human psyche.

That's not to say that all ages won't appreciate the movie; those 12-and-over will get it just as adults. And Shyamalan interjects plenty of humor, much of which are apprehensive titters to keep the nervous crowd hopeful.

It's all about setting the proper mood for Shyamalan, which typically means eerie and full of gallons of tension. Some might say that it's "palpable," although I don't even know what that means. Though to say you could cut it with a butter knife is too clich�. And Shyamalan avoids those at every turn. Either way, the aura sets the audience up with expectation of what's to come, but without knowing what to expect.

Part of this is how Shyamalan films scenes. Several times he incorporates the entire room so as to see what is the take of every character within 20 feet, others he focuses on the family of four huddled together to show that this family are the only people they can count on, and during scenes of great tension he chooses not to show anything. Instead, he focuses on an inanimate object while we conjecture what's going on via sound. He uses all of your senses, and no doubt if there were an invention of smell-o-theater, he'd use that so we could smell the breeze coming of the cornstalks or the stuffy basement air.

I love that Shyamalan incorporates philosophy of hope and fear around religious beliefs, that a Higher Power is up there watching over you if only you'll recognize the miracles. I'm sure many, many atheists will run unorganized rallies to protest this movie, and CSI will have an episode about how it is all simple when you look at the clues. Poo on them. When the aliens come, my faith may be one of the only things that keeps me from lighting my butt on fire to prevent an anal probe. I don't know how that will help, but it sounds right. It's an optimism about our nature, and about the prospects for humanity, that represents the very best of what makes us hopeful in our fate.

As for the individual performances, not one is worthy of a negative note. Joaquin could win an Oscar for anything with his style. The kids are sufficiently adorable and typically smarter than they should be, but that's what makes them full of personality. Patriarch Mel runs gracefully with the "lost faith" aspect of his character, spreading the hopelessness around and refusing to admit the obvious about a dire situation.

There are a few curious holes, but nothing you can't ignore. For instance, when the initial rash of crop circles spring up worldwide, I don't think it's enough of a newsworthy event to warrant cutting into regular programming on every network. It would be a curious kicker at the end of newscasts, but nothing taken seriously. And that has to be the best baby monitor ever invented. I need one of those. If my (future) family were in Paris I could pick up the baby's coos!

"Everything they've written in science books is about to change." Understatement of the century. As a friend noted, it's interesting how the movie's title meant something much different before seeing it than afterwards, how it could just as easily incorporate faith in signs, and in miracles.

So for those of you haven't seen it, follow the signs that say: "Signs, showing at 12:30, 3:00, 7:30, 9:45."