Unbreakable
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, and Spencer Treat Clark.
How do you follow up one of the most insanely popular movies of all time? That was the question Shymalan had to ask himself after the success of Sixth Sense. So, following the advice of my old Junior High English teacher, he stuck with what he knew. Along came another film about the supernatural, the possibilities of the human spirit, and a funky-cool twist ending.
David Dunn (Willis) is a man who’s life is falling apart. He’s on the verge of leaving his wife Audrey (Penn) and their son Joseph (Clark). After a promising football career was cut short, he now finds himself working as a security guard in the college stadium where he had his triumphs oh so long ago. But then, his life is changed. When returning from a job interview in another city, his commuter train derails. Everyone is killed…except him. He walks away without a scratch on his body. He is soon contacted by Elijah Price (Jackson). Price suffers from a rare disorder, causing his bones to be so brittle that the slightest bump could brake something. Because of this disorder, he spent a lot of time in a hospital bed…reading comic books. Now, the owner of an art gallery, he’s come to a somewhat bizzare theory. He theorizes that if people who are super-weak, like himself, exist in the world, then perhaps there also exists real live superheroes. With Dunn being the only survivor of the train wreck, Price believes that Dunn is, perhaps, a superhero. Is Dunn really a superhero of some sort? Can he find the strength to put his life back in order, let alone be a hero? And what’s the really cool twist ending?
Of course, everyone’s making the inevitable Sixth Sense comparisons. I’m no different. The film looks a lot like Sixth Sense in its mood and pacing (Hey! I used the term “pacing!” I’m turing into a real film critic!). But the mood was a little more dire than Sixth Sense. Dunn is a man who’s life has just gone to pot, and Price is a person who just needs something to believe. And while Sixth Sense did have a better twist ending, the ending in this film was still good enough to give me goosebumps. And besides, how can a person like myself hate a film where one of the main characters is essentially a comic book geek? In it’s own warped way, this film is an homage to comic geeks every where. A good and eerie homage. I highly recomend it.