an underappreciated subtle work

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2001)

Let me just say first and foremost, that I understand that I am going out on a limb here and expressing an opinion that from what I have heard, I am the only person in america (or at least on the east coast, because one person in Seattle told me she agrees) But I really liked Unbreakable.
GASP! what's that? Yes! I sat through this movie that everyone told me was terrible, and I thought it was fricken awesome. That's right, fricken awesome. Not just awesome, fricken awesome. I loved it. It think M. Night Shyamabatayaharawalan really captured the essence of a comic-book character in real life.
Samuel L. Jackson never ceases to amaze me. Can I just say that? I mean he is one of the most versatile actors of today. From the badasses he plays in movies like Pulp Fiction and Shaft, to the quiet wiseman characters like Mace Windu. And here in Unbreakable, as Elijah Price... he plays a man who is a little of both. Elijah is not a loud man, at all. He is not a strong man, and yet, he is tough. In my opinion, Elijah the character almost speaks more of the Unbreakable title, than the David character. For while David's body can't be broken, his spirit has. But Elijah's is undying. And neither, I think, is Samuel L. Jackson's talent.
Bruce Willis, is sort of a joke to most critics I think. Which is understandable. Someone who got famous by yelling "Yippie Kai Yay motherf***er" is not exactly something that gets you respect. But for the Sixth Sense, and this movie, I think he has earned some. Except for one scene, this is not a movie for Willis to flex his physical muscles, but the mental ones. His David is a man who doesn't want to admit to himself the truth about his life. He knows, all along, that it is true. but he won't allow it to be. We see so much more of the mental actor that Willis can be, having caught a glimpse of that in the famous ending of the Sixth Sense.
One last thing I wish to touch on, is Spencer Treat Clark (why do child actors always have all three names?) Spencer plays the part of David's son, Joseph. I just want to say that I think Spencer is a talented child actor. It is a shame that hollywood has a bad habit of picking one child star they like for a while and gives all the parts to them (Currently it's Haley Joel Osment) instead of developing a talent pool of young stars, and helping them to hone their craft as they grow older. Spencer is a talented young actor, I admired his work in both this film and in Arlington Road. And yet I doubt anyone knows his name, or they jokingly refer to him as if he were the Poor Man's Haley Joel. This attitude is terrible for talented young actors like Spencer, and I don't think it's any better for the beloved ones like Haley Joel Osment. If you disagree with me that it's not a problem to only have one big child star at a time, look at a young woman by the name of Drew Barrymore.