Review of Unbreakable (2000) by Filipeneto — 12 Feb 2018

Well, I must confess I was expecting something more of this movie. Night Shyamalan has a lot of style and some talent that gave us a lot of good movies. But the movie lost itself in the details.

The plot is a true homage to the world of comics, telling us the story of a man, who works as a security guard in a stadium. He is like many of us, and even has marital problems to solve. But everything changes when he's boarded by Elijah Price, an African-American with a terrible and rare disease, that makes his bones so brittle as glass, that tells him that he's gifted with superhuman powers. Well, the plot seems appealing? Indeed, it's an original approach to the subject: comic's heroes and villains are mirrored in the main characters, as well on several references and allusions that arise discreetly: some camera angles, the raincoat at the end of the film etc. The main actors (Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) are very competent and played their roles very well. Willis was particularly good, while perfectly embodying the emotional and psychological conflicts of his character.

But you are probably thinking "with so many good arguments, where the film lost it's way?" First of all, there are some situations not totally understandable and some details I think are contradictory, which may indicate that there were some mistakes in script's writing. In fact, it almost seems that writer has devoted most of his attention to the end of the film (we will talk about that later). The first, and perhaps the most obvious contradictory detail is the Elijah glass stick. It's simply incomprehensible that he uses a cane as fragile as their own bones. And how Elijah could meet Dunn's car to put his card on the windshield if both still didn't know each other? The origin of Dunn's powers is another problem since we don't know it's origin, unlike Elijah condition, which we knew it's caused by a disease. Another flaw is the fight where David commits murder, something that a superhero simply don't do (and remember, the movie tries to embody in Dunn's character the qualities of a superhero). In the comics, the "bad guys" are defeated and handed over to the authorities or die as a result of his own wickedness. When David Dunn kills with his own hands he are closest to a "vigilante" than a hero, no matter the good intentions.

Despite these negative notes, "Unbreakable" is a film that does what it sets out to do and entertains the audience very well, mainly due to the central idea of ​​the plot, the excellent performance of the actors and the unexpected plot twist in the end. Without the final twist of the story, this movie probably would have been a disappointment, a brilliant idea for a movie that would have ended badly used. Thes surprising ending ultimately "saves" the film from that destiny, making the audience forget previous mistakes.