Unbreakable

At the center of “Unbreakable,” released in 2000, is a simple question: “How many days of your life have you been sick?” David Dunne, a security guard played by Bruce Willis, doesn’t know the answer. He is barely speaking to his wife Megan, played by Robin Wright, but like all men, he believes she remembers his life better than he does. She tells him she can’t remember him ever being sick, not even a day. They have this conversation briefly after he has been in a train accident that killed every passenger on there, but left him without a broken bone. Now isn’t that bizarre.

The question originally came to him in an unsigned note. He finds the man who sent it. This is Elijah Price, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who owns a high-end comic book store with a priceless stock of first editions. Elijah has been sick for practically his whole life. He even had broken bones when he was born, being diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta. He has spent a long time looking for an indestructible man, and his logic is simple: “If there is someone like me in the world, shouldn’t there be someone at the other end of the spectrum?”

This film by M. Night Shyamalan, is in its own way as quietly exciting as “The Sixth Sense.” Roger Ebert said in his review, “It doesn't involve special effects and stunts, much of it is puzzling and introspective, and most of the action takes place during conversations. If the earlier film seemed mysteriously low-key until an ending that came like an electric jolt, this one is more fascinating along the way, although the ending is not quite satisfactory. In both films, Shyamalan trusts the audience to pay attention, and makes use of Bruce Willis' everyman quality, so we get drawn into the character instead of being distracted by the surface.”

Ebert said, “The Jackson character is not an everyman. Far from it. He is quietly menacing, formidably intelligent, and uses a facade of sophistication and knowledge to conceal anger that runs deep: He is enraged that his bones break, that his body betrays him, that he was injured so often in grade school that the kids called him "Mr. Glass."” Why does he want to find his opposite, an unbreakable man? The question waits behind every moment.

Ebert noted, “This story could have been simplified into a -- well, into the plot of one of Elijah Price's old comic books. Shyamalan does a more interesting thing. He tells it with observant everyday realism; he's like Stephen King, dealing in the supernatural and yet alert to the same human details as mainstream writers.” For instance, how interesting that David’s wife is not simply one more bystander wife in a thriller, but a real woman in a marriage that seems to have run out of love. How interesting that when her husband is saved in a crash that kills everyone else, she bravely decides this may be their opportunity to try one last time to save the marriage. How interesting that David’s relationship with his son, played by Spencer Treat Clark, is so strong, and that the boy is taken along for important scenes like the first meeting of David and Elijah.

In “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock made audiences think the story was about Janet Leigh’s character, and then killed her off a third into the film. No one gets killed early in “Unbreakable,” but Shyamalan is skilled at distraction: He involves everyone in the private life of the comic book dealer, in the job and marriage problems of the security guard, in stories of wives and mothers. The true subject of the film is well-guarded, despite always in front of us, and until the end, we don’t know what to hope for or fear. In that way, it’s like “The Sixth Sense.”

There is a theory in Hollywood currently that audiences have shorter attention spans and must be distracted by nonstop comic book action. Ebert noted, “Ironic, that a movie about a student of comic book universes would require attention and patience on the part of the audience. Moviegoers grateful for the slow unfolding of "The Sixth Sense" will like this one, too.”

The actors give performances you would expect in serious dramas. Jackson is not afraid to play man it is hard to love – a sour man, whose intelligence only adds irony to anger. Willis, so often the main focus of mindless action films, reminds everyone again that he can be a subtle actor, as quiet and mysterious as actors we expect that type of thing from – like John Malkovich or William Hurt. If this movie were about nothing else, it would be a full picture of a man in danger at work and at home.

Ebert admitted, “I mentioned the ending. I was not quite sold on it. It seems a little arbitrary, as if Shyamalan plucked it out of the air and tried to make it fit.” To be sure, there are hints along the way about the direction the story might go, and maybe this movie, like ‘The Sixth Sense,” will play even better the second time – once you know where it’s going. Even if the ending doesn’t completely succeed, it doesn’t cheat, and it comes at the end of a rarely fascinating movie.

As you could see from this review, you might be able to see why people who saw this were split about it. However, when I saw it as a kid, I personally thought this movie was fascinating. Like how Doug Walker stated, I liked that idea of what if superheroes existed. What if there was someone who was nearly indestructible and another person who was fragile and weak or wanted to take on this person? That seemed like an interesting idea, and like “The Sixth Sense,” I was shocked by the twist ending of the film. I didn’t expect it to end the way it did, but when I saw it, I was just amazed. See this if you haven’t because I think you will like it.

Stay tuned Friday for when I talk about a film that I don’t like but everyone else does in “M. Night Shyamalan Month.”