| . "...It is about that Bruce Willis, more than any of his contemporaries, has defined the modern American hero: an average everyman who has undying love for his family; a flawed man who struggles with his weaknesses; a man whose heart is large and instincts strong; a man who exudes masculinity and a competitive spirit that assist him in eventually conquering the "bad" guys; the guys that leftists fantasize about prostrating themselves in front of..." My favorite Bruce Willis movie is "Unbreakable". Where he is just an average Guy. But he has a purpose. And he discovers the purpose...that is to help his fellow man.  |
This question is the premise of M. Night Shyamalan's new picture, Unbreakable: just what brings the superhero to the decision to fight for good instead of hiding his powers or using them for evil? Is this a harrowing decision or an easy one?
The film surrounds the life of David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis. He's pretty much a beaten down man: his dreams of football, which he was excellent at, crushed by an injury in a car accident and now works as a security guard at his old stadium; his wife sleeps in a different room and he discusses moving out; his child seems lost and screwed up, in desperate need for a strong male figure in his life.
On his way home to Philadelphia after a job interview in New York, the train derails and everyone except David is killed. David, who was leaning against a window, hasn't a scratch on him.
While trying to find out the meaning, the whys, the hows of this event, he is found by Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), a crippled man who has suffered his entire life from being far too breakable; a genetic disease renders his bones brittle and delicate - his childhood classmates called him "Mr. Glass" for all his broken bones. Elijah is an avid comic book fan - he owns a gallery which sells rare prints and drawings by comic artists - and is convinced that David is a form of real life superhero. He believes that comics are like hieroglyphics in that they pass on exagerrated stories from the past, and aren't completely fiction, and David is his proof: a man who is unbreakable, a man of steel. After all, if a man could be born with a genetic defect making him infinately brittle, couldn't one be born with a genetic defect making him virtually invincible? No one would notice, because who thinks it is strange when a child is never sick or injured? It is only considered strange when one is constantly sick, and Elijah's question, "Have you ever been sick in your life?" starts to gnaw away at David.
To go on too much longer about the plot would give away too much (as Elijah's mother says when handing him a comic book: They say this one has a surprise ending), but suffice to say the emotional pull in this film is strong. David's struggle to deny and then finally accept his fate as being unbreakable is a convincingly real one: he looks so ordinary, and tries so hard to find examples of him being injured or sickly in his life, you know this is not a title he wants and would rather go back to being a security guard and living his small life.
It's completely fascinating, an aspect of the superhero film usually ignored en total - we're supposed to take all this struggle and realization for granted, and it's spellbinding to have the struggle given to us.
The relationship between David and his wife Audrey, played by Robin Wright Penn, is also good: a lump grows in your throat during the flashback to the car accident.
All the way to the end, the film grips you emotionally; that being said, it's not a heavy film in the way The Sixth Sense was. Humor is strong in this film, from the witty allusions with David in his long security rain coat, looking very much like a cape, to his son convincing him to lift more and more weights to prove he is a superman.
The only problem with this sense of wit comes in at the end; while I'm not going to spoil anything, the "Where are they now?" captions at the end of the film were inappropriate for the overall darkness of the story. It gave it a comic book feel, which despite being a film indebted to the comic book writer, is not right - Shyamalan seemed to be willfully avoiding comic stereotypes in order to make the film feel like something that could honestly occur.
In a way, you feel a bit taken by the flippancy of the captions - it is an ending that proves that, while David is physically unbreakable, emotions are a different matter, as all superheros eventually come to realize, and the audience goes on that short journey with him.
The chemistry between Willis and Jackson is superb. Neither are playing a particular stretch - Bruce Willis is everyman, Samuel L. Jackson is an eccentric - but both are plaing the type of roles they are best at, and both shine.
Willis is an extremely underrated actor, or perhaps just an actor that has made awful choices (Hudson Hawk, anyone?), and hopefully his work with Shyamalan will prove him as talented.
Shyamalan himself shines once again, with a tightly paced, realistic script and fascinating, beautiful direction: the picture of Philadelphia he paints in both Sixth and Unbreakable isn't exactly flattering (in fact, it's downright dreary and creepy), but boy does it work to build suspense. Obviously someone whose seen The Haunting original and a lot of Hitchcock flicks, he understands that the creepiest, most suspenseful part of any suspense or horror film is that which isn't fully explained or shown, and works this tension to the fullest effect.
His pallett of colors tends to run towards greens, blues, and blacks, all fantastic colors to build a spooky atmosphere, and his overall direction shows a sense of self-assurance that is lovely to watch in the age of trying far too hard.
It's fun to go back once the film is over, like The Sixth Sense, and try to spot all the foreshadowing to the ending. The foreshadowing isn't quite as seamless as Sixth, but you won't spot it unless you try to look for it. Overall, this was an extremely good film, enjoyable and engrossing, one that should garner both Willis and Jackson deserved acting nominations come Oscar time, and don't be surprised if they win, particularly since they've been passed over before. Shyamalan has proven himself a very good bordering on great director, and I can't wait for his next one.
