SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS - Reel's Jeffrey Wells saw Signs last night and calls it "hands-down the most creepily effective scary movie in years." Wells noted Gibson's fine performance - after spending the five previous grafs (rightfully) criticizing him for some of his recent choices - claiming that "it's 80% to 90% devoid of his usual affectations."

David Ansen saw a similar freshness in Gibson's turn: "He hasn’t dug this deep in years. He reinvents his body language—stiff, awkward—to reveal a man trying to remain in control of a life that has far exceeded his understanding."

My guess is that Wells and Ansen are dead-on since Gibson made it pretty clear in this month's issue of Premiere (no link available) that Shyamalan was the first director in a long time to be totally candid with him and force him to abandon his usual bag of tricks. If only more young directors had the audacity/confidence/talent to call out their complacent stars.

I'll post Gibson's whole quote when I track it down later...

["He wouldn't settle for any of my shortcuts," Gibson says later. "He'd go bzzzzzt!" Gibson makes a loud, obnoxious, game-show buzzing noise. "It was almost Pavlovian. The minute you start swallowing or something--bzzzzztt!" He laughs. "He allowed me to breathe. It's been a long time since I've had a director that would actually jump in there and wrestle that monster."]