A friend and I have a long running disagreement about reading poorly written books and watching poorly made movies. He claims that such activities are a waste of time, I maintain that the experience teaches me to avoid the mistakes that are made. If I'm right, having watched The Last Sign I've learnt more in 89 minutes than I have in the last ten years.

Kathy MacFarlane (MacDowell) is struggling to raise her three children and pay the bills following the death of her husband Jeremy (Roth) in a car crash. Her financial worries lead her to rent out another property on her grounds to a mysterious lodger Marc (Samuel Le Bihan) and shortly after she begins to experience visions of the past, punctuated by a handful of night time silent phone calls.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up the movie.

Any film of this kind that relies upon building a tense and menacing atmosphere, for example Sixth Sense or The Omen must allow us to empathise with the characters and the situation they find themselves in. We must jump when they jump and shout at the screen when they decide to stay in the house with the blood running down the walls. Of all it's failings The Last Sign suffers most horribly from having weak and paper thin characterisation and at no point throughout the running time could I really have given a jot for the fate of those on screen. Perhaps more importantly, our lack of understanding for these people makes their behaviour inexplicable.

Jeremy (Roth) is seen only in flashback and there is no depth of character to explain why at one point he is a loving father and another a madman running down the road throwing bricks at Kathy's car. It is suggested that he drinks heavily but there is no lead, no clue to how or why this came about - if indeed there is a reason. We are given to understand that Kathy is in financial difficulty but we see her living in a house the size of Balmoral with another that would suit a family of five in the grounds (with lake frontage). Kathy becomes friends with someone at work (Margot Kidder) but we don't see how or understand why - they appear to have nothing in common and Kidder's character simply came across as scary and weird. Kathy's eldest son is apparently a trial to her but from what we see on screen he could apply to the diplomatic corps. Kathy and lodger end up falling into each other's arms but the movie only skirts the edges of what must be the most swift of lightening romances.

Given paper-thin characters it should really be no surprise that the dialogue is clunky and strained - what there is of it - and at times the editors knife seems all too apparent. Beyond this there seems a genuine lack of skill in matching the scene to the words being spoken. At one point the 'rebellious' son refuses to go with Kathy to her sisters but the lines are delivered when he's outside the house with his coat in his hand and his resolution crumbles when she merely asks him twice. In another, Marc reveals that he's going back to France and Kathy receives the news as though he was popping out for a paper.

Layered none too gently on this mess are the technical problems. The character Marc is introduced as being a French scientist, visiting from France. He is played by a French actor. So why were all his lines dubbed - badly - into a faux US accent that wandered from state to state? The 'creepy' supernatural elements seemed to use a budget that ran into the tens, if not hundreds of dollars; at odds with what was clearly a reasonably budgeted film. The foley work was awful, either that or Andie MacDowell really does have bare feet that sound like boots on a wooden floor, and the 3-litre Merc she drives actually does sound like a Fiat 125. I'd even go so far as to suggest that the DoP does some research on how to handle a two-shot conversation.

Some movies of this quality redeem themselves with a decent ending. Sadly this isn't the case here. The denouement is as meaningless as the preceding scenes, mostly because it assumes an explanatory role when the questions themselves haven't been clearly asked. We never adequately understand what the 'signs' are or what their relevance is and MacDowell's performance put me in mind of someone who's missed the next episode of Dr Who, not someone on the verge of madness, so her relief and joy seem out of proportion.

In essence, though, it is the characters that let this film down and if you need a good example of how important this element of scripting is, look no further.

Jon