AO Scott in the NYT on M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, Signs:
The lesson that “Signs” imparts — have faith! — is ubiquitous in the culture, from the pronouncements of certain politicians to television shows like “Touched by an Angel.” (This version might be called “Mauled by an Alien.”) The movie’s fuzzy pop-spiritualism carries a disturbing implication. Unless you have faith (in something tactfully left unspecified), it says, you are putting the integrity of your family and the very lives of your children at risk, and you no longer deserve to be called father — as if skepticism, or indeed any but the most literal-minded expression of belief, were a form of child abuse.
Of course, even as an atheist, I’ll be the first to admit that a world where “happens for a reason and that we are therefore not alone” makes for much better movies.
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