Deliberately Paced But Fascinating

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2017)

Only got to see one film over the weekend, but it was a most enjoyable one. The movie was "Unbreakable," which I had wanted to see ever since it was released in 2000. Many of my coworkers were raving about it back when, but it took me almost 17 years to catch up with it. It is the M. Night Shyamalan film that immediately follows "The Sixth Sense," which up until last night, was the only M. Night movie that I had ever seen. In this one, Bruce Willis stars again, this time as David Dunn, a football-stadium security guard who is the sole survivor of a horrific train accident. He soon comes to realize that he has never been injured in his entire life...or had a single sick day! Oddball comic-art gallery owner Samuel L. Jackson tries to convince him that he is special, while Bruce's estranged wife, Robin Wright Penn, looks on in confusion. Ultimately, the viewer realizes that he/she is watching nothing less than a genuine superhero movie, albeit a very realistic one. Dunn's superpowers turn out to be unusual strength and the ability to sense the evil deeds of anyone he comes in contact with. He tackles a psycho home invader in a very tense finale, but M. Night has one more twist ending up his sleeve, as he had in "The Sixth Sense." The film is a deliberately paced, quiet affair, but a fascinating one, nevertheless. Quentin Tarantino has gone on record as saying that he feels that Bruce gave his career-best performance here, and he really is very fine and understated in this one. I have heard that the character that Bruce plays here makes a belated return in this year's Shyamalan film "Split," and I do hope to catch that one now at some future point. "Unbreakable" comes very highly recommended by yours truly. I have one more film by the man on tap, and that one is 2004's "The Village," which seems to suffer with very mixed reviews. Stay tuned....