Unconventional Superhero Story

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2000)

"Unbreakable" is quite a different sort of movie from the usual Hollywood fare. Since I never saw "The Sixth Sense", I had absolutely no expectation of any kind when I walked into the theatre. Perhaps this is why I liked it better than many other people who submitted reviews to IMDB...I had nothing to compare it with. That said, I found this to be entertaining in a quiet and relatively intellectual way. There are really no action sequences, the script does not over-explain things, and the audience is required to pay attention. When it comes, the trick ending (this is no spoiler, everyone knows that this movie has one!) makes perfect sense and also dovetails neatly (and in a 'neat' way) with the characters' identities, history and story development; it suddenly becomes logical, and even the opening comic book statistics lead up to this.
As far as the spoiler goes, I don't think anybody who likes this movie would dream of hinting, or downright dropping, the punchline of the film's story. However, I think I can go so far as to say that this IS a superhero movie, in the way the classic comics developed their stories. There is a telling moment in the film where the Samuel Jackson character, Elijah, randomly hits upon the function that Bruce Willis' character, David Dunne, will have for the rest of his life. But this is not the real surprise of the movie, it is much better than that.
Besides a better than average story, the way the film makers set up the scenes and used the camera is both advantageous to the story and mood, but also simply entertaining.
Once again, Samuel Jackson plays the intellectual mind inside an incompatible body. He delivers his lines as nobody else can. Bruce Willis on the other hand, has few lines and mostly looks depressed. Still, it is hard to see how he could have improved the portrayal given the nature of the character.
Was this a perfact movie? No. Was it worthwhile? Absolutely!