Jonathan Nossiter’s Signs & Wonders has such resonance and sophistication that it recalls the cinema of Michelangelo Antonioni in its powerful evocation of the essentially enigmatic quality of human nature. Instead of the visual splendor of the Italian maestro, however, the American-born Nossiter exhibits the terse but equally cinematic style of a noir thriller. His film abounds in psychological suspense and plays like a mystery film, even though the mystery at hand may be purely one of the human heart. It is a formidably accomplished work, especially since it is only Nossiter’s second feature film. […] Nossiter, an American who grew up abroad, and James Lasdun, an Englishman residing in America, co-wrote Sunday, and they re-teamed for Signs & Wonders, working from an original story by Lasdun.
Their film is above all an exploration of the potentially disastrous naivete of the American character – especially in men and specifically regarding sex and politics. Stellan Skarsgard’s Alec is a Stockholm-born American commodities trader who has been living in Athens for the last three years with his wife, Marjorie (Charlotte Rampling), an American whose mother was Greek, and their small son and daughter. Alec and Marjorie have been happily married for more than 15 years, and live in a comfortable, clearly expensive, tasteful home.
Alec begins an affair with a sultry American, Katherine (Deborah Kara Unger), a new employee in his office. Even so, he teeters back and forth in his affections, returning to America with Katherine only to discover that what he really wants is to be back in Athens with his wife and children. […]
Alec is a man not about to take no for answer, and his determination to win back his wife and children turns the film into a confounding, unpredictable and compelling experience. Is the film’s increasingly tense atmosphere purely a reflection of its characters’ personal conflicts? Or is there something more sinister, some sort of conspiracy at work? Is danger lurking everywhere–or only in its characters’ hearts?
Signs & Wonders delves into the classic interplay of fate, character and emotion with exceptional depth and a level of awareness only the eternal omniscient observer in films and literature could ever hope to possess. In its taut, portentous atmosphere the limitations of human awareness of others and of self emerge with a devastating impact. This is a film rich in references, ranging from American popular music standards to the major metaphor of the looking glass of Alice in Wonderland, into which Alec inevitably steps in his attempt to reclaim his past. […] Signs & Wonders is that true rarity, a forceful film of a unique and original vision.

 Kevin Thomas, ‘Signs & Wonders’ Probes the Mysteries of the Heart, Los Angeles Times, 6 April 2001