Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Unbreakable / USA / 2000

In retrospect, it’s not hard to see why everyone found Shyamalan’s (essentially) sophomore effort — all waterlogged dreariness and millennial malaise — so disappointing. It’s slow and a little sappy, with Samuel L. Jackson’s trademark intensity and Bruce Willis doing his best “blue steel.” It also lacks the pyrotechnics, however subdued, of Shyamalan’s previous film, preferring marital strife and father-son time to the expected “Biff”s and “Ka-Pow”s of a superhero movie.

But from this vantage point, after the dozen or so comic book movies that have since followed (and Heroes, which I’ve never watched), not to mention the subsequently diminishing returns of Shyamalan’s career, Unbreakable seems a far more plausible movie now than it did eight years ago. The idea of the film — that Willis’s David Dunn is an unbreakable superhero, but never realized it — is drawn out with uncommon subtlety by Shyamalan, and the film is shot with his particular grey, Philadelphian beauty. Some scenes fall a little flat, but others — the astonishing trainwreck and its aftermath, a weirdly touching weightlifting scene — keep the film quietly suspenseful, right up to its climactic/anti-climactic action sequence.

Shyamalan’s effort — and it’s no easy one — is to credibly weave comic books into a Hollywood-realist melodrama, a task which other, more recent comic book movies (Batman Begins flaps to mind) take up and drop without much consistency. Shyamalan at least holds to his intentions, and the result is that the film usually functions better in its family drama mode than its superhero movie mode. But as his films are always about the different narratives that compete for control over the characters’ and the audience’s minds, this push-and-pull of genres actually works in the film’s favor. And the acting follows suit: Robin Wright (erstwhile) Penn is characteristically serious and great, Jackson is cartoonish and effortlessly watchable, and Willis (whose performance is — no kidding — among his best) is a mix of both. Even if Shyamalan all but blows it with the final scene — not so much because of the “surprise” ending (which is quite clever, but not that surprising), but because of Sam Jackson’s outfit and the useless titlecards — I, for one, mostly buy it. Whatever its faults, it’s nonetheless undeserving of its status as a film maudit.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment DVD
15 May 2008 12:59 PM | Comments (1)

Comments / 1 total / Submit Comment

1. Conor / 18 May 2008 / 7:02 AM

   Hi Leo (library entrance online?):

   Thanks for another orderly review. I mean, setting the record straight. I was particularly inspired by the trainwreck scene. Those trains don’t get enough space. The weightlifitng scene was obviously very important. I mean, who doesn’t lift? Thanks for digging this up. Shyamalan is important.

   C-Rub