Warning: does contain spoilers.
As we all sat in theater and we saw the haunting image of Bruce Willis being told in an eerie and confused voice by a doctor that he was the sole survivor of a train wreck, and that he wasn't scarred or broken in any way, we were intrigued. Then those magic words flash across the screen....FROM THE WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF SIXTH SENSE. Now we are hooked. Toss in Samuel L. Jackson playing the prophet, and now we have perhaps the most anticipated film of the year. And yet the funniest thing about the whole thing is that no one really had a clue what the film was about. All we knew is that Bruce had a secret. So going into the film, we were really all just conformists hoping that this film was going to capture us the way Sixth Sense did. Now I don't think that this film is for everyone, which seemss to be the general consensus from other reviewers in here, but for those that understand the film and for those that can appreciate it, you are in for a treat.
From here on out, if you don't want to know what the film is about, then stop reading.
Bruce Willis plays David Dunne, who, as the film opens is riding on that doomed train destined to crash. We all know this from the trailers. But as he is riding on that train, a pretty young woman asks if the seat is taken next to him and he says no. As she sits down, he takes off his wedding ring and begins to flirt with her. As we already know, somewhere along the way in the film, we are going to see that Willis may have some sort of gift that prevents him from injury, but that doesn't mean he is unbreakable in other facets of his life. Somewhere along the way, he has lost contact with his family and he and his wife don't even hold hands as he is being released from the hospital.
Upon leaving the funeral for the passengers of the train wreck that he survived, he finds a note on his car from a place called LIMITED EDITION, and on it, it asks him how many days he has ever been sick in his life. This question intrigues him and since he can't remember himself, he goes to the one source that knows him better than he knows himself, his wife. She can't ever remember him being sick.
"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" he asks her.
When David finally meets Elijah Price, we learn that Elijah has sought him out because Elijah is one of the most breakable men in the world. His bones are easily broken and his cells react very poorly to disease and have a hard time fighting off even the common cold. It seems that these two are the complete opposite. Elijah tells David that he believes he is "unbreakable" simply because Elijah is not. If a man like Elijah exists, then there must be a man out there that is on the other side of the spectrum.
The rest of the film moves along slowly, not in a bad way but slowly enough so that we have time to understand everyone involved. Shyamalan cares about his characters and he does take them seriously. He wants us to know them and understand them, so that when the big secret is unveiled to us, not only do we understand why the secret is the way it is, but we also understand how the movie was filmed and why it was done so in the way it was. Get it? Well don't worry if you don't. See it again and you will.
I read a review about Unbreakable by the venerable Roger Ebert, and he praised the film but then criticized the ending saying that it felt like it was rushed, that more care was needed, so instead of giving it four stars he gave it three. My response to that is this:
I am not a lover or a connoisseur of the thing that Shyamalan is. I will not reveal what that is, but saffice it to say that if you at least understand them, then you will see what the direction the film is heading in. There are many hints and subtleties that you can begin to guess about half way through the film what is happening. That is not to say that the secret is not shocking, because it is. It's just that this time you can see it coming from a far. And that is done through actions, camera shots, camera angles, the colouring of the film, the dialogue, and the costumes. This is a brilliant film that wants to emulate a passion that one man has for one particular thing in this world. And when you open your film by telling your audience that the world of COMICS is bigger than any of us imagined, well that should give us a clue right there. Make no mistake about it, this film is calculated from beginning to end.
Unbreakable is one of the best films to come out this year and the great thing about is that it is simple but effective and Shyamalan may have just created a franchise for himself and Willis and Jackson. Touchstone is probably counting the dollars as we speak.
I do recommend that this film be viewed twice, not because the secret is as good as Sixth Sense was, but because it is a film worth viewing several times. And yes, when you do give it a second viewing, you will understand it more and praise it more, and crave the next one.
10 out of 10- Sheer brilliance.
As we all sat in theater and we saw the haunting image of Bruce Willis being told in an eerie and confused voice by a doctor that he was the sole survivor of a train wreck, and that he wasn't scarred or broken in any way, we were intrigued. Then those magic words flash across the screen....FROM THE WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF SIXTH SENSE. Now we are hooked. Toss in Samuel L. Jackson playing the prophet, and now we have perhaps the most anticipated film of the year. And yet the funniest thing about the whole thing is that no one really had a clue what the film was about. All we knew is that Bruce had a secret. So going into the film, we were really all just conformists hoping that this film was going to capture us the way Sixth Sense did. Now I don't think that this film is for everyone, which seemss to be the general consensus from other reviewers in here, but for those that understand the film and for those that can appreciate it, you are in for a treat.
From here on out, if you don't want to know what the film is about, then stop reading.
Bruce Willis plays David Dunne, who, as the film opens is riding on that doomed train destined to crash. We all know this from the trailers. But as he is riding on that train, a pretty young woman asks if the seat is taken next to him and he says no. As she sits down, he takes off his wedding ring and begins to flirt with her. As we already know, somewhere along the way in the film, we are going to see that Willis may have some sort of gift that prevents him from injury, but that doesn't mean he is unbreakable in other facets of his life. Somewhere along the way, he has lost contact with his family and he and his wife don't even hold hands as he is being released from the hospital.
Upon leaving the funeral for the passengers of the train wreck that he survived, he finds a note on his car from a place called LIMITED EDITION, and on it, it asks him how many days he has ever been sick in his life. This question intrigues him and since he can't remember himself, he goes to the one source that knows him better than he knows himself, his wife. She can't ever remember him being sick.
"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" he asks her.
When David finally meets Elijah Price, we learn that Elijah has sought him out because Elijah is one of the most breakable men in the world. His bones are easily broken and his cells react very poorly to disease and have a hard time fighting off even the common cold. It seems that these two are the complete opposite. Elijah tells David that he believes he is "unbreakable" simply because Elijah is not. If a man like Elijah exists, then there must be a man out there that is on the other side of the spectrum.
The rest of the film moves along slowly, not in a bad way but slowly enough so that we have time to understand everyone involved. Shyamalan cares about his characters and he does take them seriously. He wants us to know them and understand them, so that when the big secret is unveiled to us, not only do we understand why the secret is the way it is, but we also understand how the movie was filmed and why it was done so in the way it was. Get it? Well don't worry if you don't. See it again and you will.
I read a review about Unbreakable by the venerable Roger Ebert, and he praised the film but then criticized the ending saying that it felt like it was rushed, that more care was needed, so instead of giving it four stars he gave it three. My response to that is this:
I am not a lover or a connoisseur of the thing that Shyamalan is. I will not reveal what that is, but saffice it to say that if you at least understand them, then you will see what the direction the film is heading in. There are many hints and subtleties that you can begin to guess about half way through the film what is happening. That is not to say that the secret is not shocking, because it is. It's just that this time you can see it coming from a far. And that is done through actions, camera shots, camera angles, the colouring of the film, the dialogue, and the costumes. This is a brilliant film that wants to emulate a passion that one man has for one particular thing in this world. And when you open your film by telling your audience that the world of COMICS is bigger than any of us imagined, well that should give us a clue right there. Make no mistake about it, this film is calculated from beginning to end.
Unbreakable is one of the best films to come out this year and the great thing about is that it is simple but effective and Shyamalan may have just created a franchise for himself and Willis and Jackson. Touchstone is probably counting the dollars as we speak.
I do recommend that this film be viewed twice, not because the secret is as good as Sixth Sense was, but because it is a film worth viewing several times. And yes, when you do give it a second viewing, you will understand it more and praise it more, and crave the next one.
10 out of 10- Sheer brilliance.