M. Night Shyamalan couldn't have chosen a better time to make his mark on the film world with his awesome debut The Sixth Sense. It slid easily into a genre suffocating under the rather turgid weight of countless teen slasher flicks, a genre so desperately in need of intelligent and above all adult film-making. His follow-up however seems destined to have a harder time. Unbreakable is a movie unto its own. It escapes any easy genre classification. The casting of such popular favourites as Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson will no doubt draw the crowds, indeed the director himself should also prove some attraction but Unbreakable is not a movie for anyone wanting any form of instant cinematic gratification.
David Dunn is a very unhappy man. Coming home from a job interview, his train derails, killing every passenger and crew member onboard with the rather stunning exception of himself, stunning for he has not one single mark on his body. Confused, he returns to his steadily-disintegrating marriage, intent on some form of continuation when a mysterious stranger approaches him. Elijah Price, an embittered man who suffers from a rare bone disease offers David an outlandish reasoning behind his miraculous survival, which if true will change his life forever.
The opening thirty minutes of Unbreakable are perhaps too perfect. They present a fully self-assured film, each scene beautifully set up and filmed, a thoroughly intriguing plot set in motion around some well-realised characters. Unfortunately, something goes drastically wrong afterward. The movie has no real consistency. At its heart, there is a genuinely fascinating human drama but Shyamalan continually takes some rather self-indulgent detours over the course of his film's running time, dampening slightly the all-important emotional core. However, for the most part, Unbreakable is a truly powerful, original and even daring vision. Although the film's refusal to form a more traditional narrative can at times be frustrating, it also lends itself to the rather satisfying feel of Independent cinema, making The Sixth Sense look mainstream by comparison. M. Night has a singular story to tell, a tale of evolution and fulfillment that needs no artifice - no typical Hollywood trappings of grandiose action or pretty little sex scenes. He is here to present his story in an intelligent and restrained light and does so admirably.
Every scene from the very beginning is framed immaculately. M. Night Shyamalan is a director who does not abuse the idea of editing, his movies are clearly shot with much forethought and skill. He sets up each moment with the utmost precision, seguing from scene to scene with, at times alarming fluidity. During the more personal moments, his camera frames the actors perfectly, totally unobtrusive, letting their performances flow naturally. At times, the director does succumb to over-indulgence, the only true "action" scene smothered by some rather over-heated presentation.
For every real performance Bruce Willis gives, he has the annoying tendency of switching back to auto-pilot for a couple of, what I term "fluff-pieces", shallow insubstantial (in his case) comedy or action movies. After the Sixth Sense, he cruised by on his atypical smug, wiseguy schtick for The Whole Nine Yards and The Kid, two movies that may have helped his bank balance but really did nothing for his career. Tarantino was, of course the man responsible for showing the world that Bruce could indeed act. Pulp Fiction encouraged him to branch out in the search for ever-more-challenging roles. From his supporting turn in the enjoyable character drama, Nobody's Fool to his brilliantly low-key performance in 6th, he has been cultivating a thoroughly appealing everyman quality that truly comes to seed here in Unbreakable. With Elijah Price's seemingly crazed theory, Willis brings David Dunn on a completely believable journey as the man awakens from his dormant existence to finally embrace life once more.
While Bruce Willis is certainly the star, Sam Jackson gets the showier role as the crippled Elijah Price, a man born with a brutal defect that has crippled the rest of his being. He is a brooding, intense man whose life is based on comic books and the worlds that exist within their pages - from where he finds the inspiration behind his fantastic idea. Jackson brings every ounce of emotional anguish and intensity alive, mixing in a rather angry petulance whcih brings the screen fully alive in the wake of Willis' straight man role. In support, Robin Wright-Penn, an actress firmly entrenched in the feminine movie abyss known as "love-interest" once again rises above these limitations and graces the screen with an emotionally genuine presence as David's wife Audrey. When he first appears, Spencer Treat Clark - playing David's son Joseph - does bear a striking resemblance to immensely talented youngster Haley Joel Osment, but despite his best efforts he isn't quite in the same ballpark as the his Shyamalan peer.
At the end of the day, even at 110 minutes, Unbreakable feels like half a movie. The much lambasted ending will certainly frustrate even the most lenient of movie-goers. The film ends with two screens of text where only one would have been quite sufficient. If I could have had my way, three simple words would have been printed on it: To Be Continued... As a big fan of The Sixth Sense, I went into Unbreakable with high hopes. I wanted nothing less than to love it, but although I certainly liked the movie a great deal, there was just something missing for me. I have never understood the allure of comics. My brother is a comic collector and when he bought one particular issue in Florida for $500, I was left stunned and fully bemused. When all is said and done, I just couldn't embrace the movie's central theology to the extent required. |
