Unbreakable (2000)

                            UNBREAKABLE
                  A film review by Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: David Dunne is the sole survivor
          of a train crash that killed over 300 people.
          David completely escaped injury.  This incident
          and a note asking if he has every been sick
          leads David to question his own interpretation
          of his life and his past.  Elijah Price, an
          invalid with a strange fixation on comic books,
          draws David into a strange fantasy in which
          David is sort of a comic book character.
          Bringing much of the same minor key direction
          and imagery he brought to THE SIXTH SENSE,
          writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has a talent
          for making the familiar seem unfamiliar and
          foreboding.  Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
          Spoiler warning: Probably the less the viewer
          knows prior to seeing the film, the better.  My
          recommendation would be to read nothing beyond
          the capsule until you have seen the film.

M. Night Shyamalan seems to have one style of cinematography. He keeps his scenes dark with heavy photographic filters. Frequently the viewer has to work to make out the image that he is seeing. Some of his scenes seem carved out of darkness. His writing does much the same. One needs patience to make out exactly what he is showing the viewer. When one finds out what UNBREAKABLE is really about, it becomes a sly if somewhat dry joke--a view of the familiar shown in unfamiliar terms making it almost unrecognizable.

The story begins following two plot lines. One involves a baby born in a Philadelphia hospital with two broken arms and two broken legs. It seems that Elijah Price (played as an adult by Samuel Jackson) was born with a genetic deficiency that makes his bones very easy to break. Elijah becomes a dealer in comic book art who is fixated on the possibility that there might be some people at the other end of his spectrum who would be almost impossible to harm. Another plotline involves a man who is the lone survivor of a tragic railroad accident that killed hundreds of people. David Dunne (played by Bruce Willis) is something of a misfit. His marriage to Megan Dunne (Robin Wright) is falling apart and he really does not have much to say to her. But somebody has something to say to David. An anonymous note on his windshield asks him if he has ever been sick a day in his life. Come to think of it, has he? For most people it would be an easy question to answer, but David cannot really remember ever being sick. This makes him anxious to find this person who seems to know him better than he knows himself. And this person seems to think he is unbreakable.

The great mystery is not whether David can be hurt or not, a pin could tell that in a few seconds, but where is Shyamalan going with this buildup and will it be worth it when he gets there? I suppose I was delighted that one of two or three possibilities I was expecting turned out to be the one that was true. This is a story that could be told with a lot of fun, but Shyamalan keeps the proceedings grim and emotions muted to avoid tipping his hand too soon. The photography is very much as used in Film Noir and some of his images are borrowed from comic book art. One shot is filmed between the backs of two seats on a train. To give the feel of comic book panels the camera moves back and forth to frame one face and then the other between the seats. Frequently the camera angles are strange and disorienting, more than once turning objects entirely upside-down. The people we see are cold with their emotions kept tightly bottled. The plot unfolds very slowly and deliberately. There is one chase in the film and there we are less concerned at the outcome than we are with whether the character will hurt himself.

As he did with THE SIXTH SENSE Bruce Willis gives a careful, measured performance. His marriage with the Robin Wright character seems to have died of the cold because each bottles up any emotions. It is difficult for the viewer to empathize with either. Almost all the emotion in the film is shown by Samuel Jackson and then it is over abstractions. He is, for example, angered when a valuable patron turns out to be buying comic art not for himself but for his four-year-old son.

The surprises in this film are more complex than in THE SIXTH SENSE, but they will be appreciated by a narrower audience. I would give this film a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

                                        Mark R. Leeper
                                        mleeper@lucent.com
                                        Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper