UN-MISSABLE. Review on Unbreakable Movie

There is a time - about ten minutes from the end of this movie - when I thought ''No, you can’t end it like that''. Suffice to say – ''It didn’t''...!

This is the story of David Dunn (Bruce Willis)– a man who survives an horrific train crash. The sole survivor – but more than that – he has not a scratch on him!

He is just an ordinary guy, like you and I. A Stadium security guard with his marriage on the rocks. He has just returned from New York, where he had been for an interview for a new job. A job that would take him away from his family and give him a new start.

Little does he know that his ‘new start’ begins with that train wreck!

Those of you who saw Director/Writer, M.Night Shyamalan’s first collaboration with leading man Willis, ‘Sixth Sense’, may guess that this movie will be tense, taut and at times mesmeric. With the subject matter it would be easy for the Director to go the way of the comic book hero – create another Superman/Batman type character – but not Mr Shyamalan.

They say opposites attract and that is largely what this film encompasses. Take the two main characters – Dunn, strangely spared any kind of injury in the crash. Hasn’t taken a day sick leave off work – in fact never gets sick, never been hurt. Weird. And then there is Elijah Price. He runs an art gallery specialising in Comic Book artwork. He was a sickly child, born with ‘brittle bones disease’. He has broken every bone in his body that can be broken. Walks with a cane and is physically frail, but mentally sharp.

Price - played excellently by Samuel L. Jackson – believes that for every ‘weakling’ there is a ‘strongman’. As he, himself, is so frail, he has been searching for an ‘unbreakable’ opposite – someone at the other end of the physical scale to himself.

Dunn does not want to believe that he may just be another ‘Superman’. His son, Joseph, thinks it’s cool for his Dad to be special and wants to prove that to him. There is a frightening scene in the kitchen where the son points a loaded pistol at Dad -“It’s OK it won’t hurt you, I know it won’t”.

The crash and the aftermath bring the Dunn family closer together. David and wife Audrey (played by Robin Wright Penn) start over – go on a date – and may yet have a future together, but something is still nagging at him, an unfulfillment, a sadness.

Dunn and Price meet several times and as the movie progresses, realisation dawns that he does have some special power. He ‘feels’ things, ‘sees’ things – but even if you know that you have a ‘gift’ like that, what do you do with it – and what does Price want in all this?

All questions are answered in the finish – I promise.

It really made a pleasant change to see a film like this that was ‘adult’ in all dimensions. The direction was superb, script tight and the acting was of the highest standard. I fully expected both Willis and Jackson to be nominated in some category as when the Awards season hit full sway - but sadly not.

Anyway it was an excellent way to kick off the 2001 Film season and if you missed it earlier at the Cinema you can now catch it on DVD and video.