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Signs & Wonders

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
James Lasdun (also story)
Jonathan Nossiter
Directed by: Jonathan Nossiter
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 9, 2001
DVD: April 26, 2002
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: Not rated
Starring Stellan SkarsgÄrd, Charlotte Rampling, Deborah Unger, Dimitri Katalifos, and Ashley Remy
Living in Athens, an American leaves his wife for another woman and then tries to return...too late... she has become involved with a Greek political activist.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Abounds in psychological suspense and plays like a mystery film, even though the mystery at hand may be purely one of the human heart.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Loren King
Has extraordinary depth and insight about the limitations and follies of human beings.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Beautifully acted film remains deeply intelligent and always fascinating.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Though Signs & Wonders loses its bubbles and runs flat in its anticlimactic final moments, it's far more inventive and demanding than any movie of recent memory.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Jonathan Nossiter's second feature (after the intricate and haunting ''Sunday'') strikes unnerving chords of mystery and dismay as it fuses the sinister, jump cut dislocations of a metaphysical thriller like ''Don't Look Now'' with a pain soaked meditation on love, guilt, marriage, and adultery.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The best performance is by Rampling. (The) camera hangs on her, knowing that nothing escapes those wise, sad-lidded eyes.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
As a drama about the ravages of mental illness, the movie works; too bad most of the critics read it only as a romantic soap opera in which the hero is an obsessive sap. They read the signs but miss the diagnosis.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Offers up keys and cakes and plunges its characters down a deep rabbit hole.
New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
This is a sensitive, thinking person's movie with a lot on its mind.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Spare and coolly evocative, it's a chilling accomplishment.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Skarsgard's performance is bold and raw (and reminiscent of vintage Jack Lemmon in its earnestness).
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Nossiter's premise is good, and he intrigues us with stylish conceits, but he makes a crucial casting error. Alec ought to be someone we care about.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Pretension looms, and for many the web of symbolism will be too thick. But Rampling, to her credit, helps hold the nuthouse together.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
Less would have been more, and this film is sabotaged by its maker's unchecked pretension.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Smug, often tedious, and comically crude.
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Filled with voyeuristic shots as the camera peers through picket fences and windows and around corners; the film looks as if it were shot with a surveillance camera from a 7-Eleven
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Timi T gave it a 9:
A great movie that bears repeated watching. Where in the world does Paula W. get the idea that this film is an adaptation of Don DeLillo's book The Names? The only similarity between the two is the Athens location. Signs & Wonders is a terrific evocation of the experience of florid paranoid mania. Ashley Ramey does a riveting job as the young daughter of Stellan Skarsgard, who turns in a brilliant performance. Charlotte Rampling is, as always, enchanting to behold, even better as she gets older.
Robert L. gave it a 7:
This movie leaves one with questions unanswered, irresolved suggestions, inconclusive interpretations, which is great because it leaves one's mind opened. The acting is great. The ambivalence of sentiments and the constant questioning of what's under the skin are very well treated. This is a movie that represents well enigmas of the human heart and soul. The mystical, sign searching aspect of the movie doesn't work as well.
Paula W. gave it a 3:
Just because a film cost many millions to make, that doesn't mean it will entertain you; on the other hand, just because it's grainy doesn't mean it's high-minded and authentic. Exhibit A: this pastiche of French bedroom farce, clunky art-film dialogue, pseudo-Chomskyite anti-Americanism, and Semiotics 101. The dialogue must have been written in French then translated into English. Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling, two of the best actors working today, are wasted on this straw-man exercise. Signs & Wonders has a little visual and audio style, but that's about it. The reason I hated this film, probably more than it deserves, is that it's a shoddy adaptation of one of my favorite books, Don DeLillo's wonderful and uncategorizable novel The Names, about an American's year in Athens circa 1980. What a shock to learn that Jonathan Nossiter is actually American: this looks like the work of someone who's never met an actual American in his life.
