|
Unbreakable
Directed By M. Night Shyamalan
It would have been easy to find another talented, cute kid but Shymalan stays with the adults in his latest absorbing thriller: the darker, moodier Unbreakable. While no one could have forseen how The Sixth Sense would take the country by storm, this film is not for everyone, nor is there a signature "I see dead people". While the storytelling pattern is similar and elements of the supernatural remain, this film is much more contemplative than his debut.
Bruce Willis is David Dunn, the improbable sole survivor of a train wreck that kills everyone on board. Soon after he meets Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a stranger who has suffered his entire life from a rare bone disease that has made his body "breakable". As someone who spent his prostate years reading comic books, Elijah offers David a theory for his "unbreakability": that he's actually a superhero who should be using his powers. David has never been sick or seriously injured, while Elijah is his complete opposite.
David, however, is leading a less than remarkable existence as a security guard for the stadium. He's also living miserably with his wife Audrey (Robin Wright Penn), who is just as sullen. They share a son, Joseph, who like Elijah is convinced Dad is more powerful than he knows. David has a special sixth sense (no pun intended) of weeding out the troublemakers before they enter the stadium (as people brush past him he is able to envision anything evil they've done) and attributes it to mere intuitiveness. Though his relationship with Elijah remains stressed at best, David embarks on a sort of journey to confront the myriad of possibilities that belong to him.
At the heart of the film are David's relationship's with others. Shymalan does an excellent job of showing the intimate layers of pain and brutish honesty of David's broken relationship with his wife. Robin Wright Penn gives yet another affecting performance without overdoing it. By casting Willis, who through his action hero roles has an "unbreakable" quality about him and throwing him into a mundane existence, Shymalan is able to play on both his air of indefatigability and his vulnerability. Willis, in turn, gives another adroit performance with just enough voltage. Like Kevin Spacey's Lester in American Beauty, a transformation is achieved. Nothing could have been more jolting than the opening sequence on the train. We watch a bereft Willis try to hit on a younger woman who refuses his advances and runs to switch seats. Later on, he sees the effect he has on his son in one scene where he lifts an inordinate amount of weights (and huffs and puffs the whole time, veins bulging, quite unlike a superhero.)
Samuel Jackson has the chance to show the range he's long been capable of. His features (eyes and dress especially) personify those of certain characters in his beloved comic books. He keeps you skeptical until the very end because you never quite know what to expect from him. Jackson can scare you into believing anything, a key quality needed for this role. I flinched and winced throughout a scene of his in a comic book store where he purposely knocks into things, waiting to hear the crack of his bones.
Shymalan's artistic sensibilities come through in this somber film. The strangely cold mood of Philadelphia is ever present: from schools, train stations, to the character's homes; everything has an air of sadness. The scene of David at the train station looking to prove his powers is one of the only ones where Philadelphia doesn't seem totally oppressive. Shymalan highlights both the economic and the historic: David and Elijah both come from lower class backgrounds. Both characters, for better or worse, have a sense of belonging and have never left their corners of the city. This in turn helps the languid pacing of the film, that only builds rapidly once David starts to act on his will.
The conclusion, both shocking and expected, doesn't wrap everything up into nice little packages.
With Unbreakable Shyamalan shows that some M. Night Shylamans can see "it", that vision that creates a compelling film capable of slowly hooking you in.
Fred Thom
 Signs
The Sixth Sense
|
Copyright ©1998-2017 LA PLUME NOIRE All rights reserved.
|
|
Unbreakable review
