"You can't let bad things happen to good people, right?"

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2014)

In the Silver Age Superman comics, a frequent theme that writers used was the concept of the irresistible force against an immovable object. That's not quite the story here, but since comic books play such an important backdrop to the story, I think it's worth mentioning. Director Shyamalan finds a unique way to counter the forces of good and evil in this film, but it's not until the twist ending as it were, that we come to realize that Samuel L. Jackson's character had a hideously disfigured mind to go along with his easily breakable body. I guess there were some clues along the way, like the repeated references to the three particular 'accidents' that Elijah Price kept alluding to, but that by itself wouldn't have been enough to betray his character.
I like this story, I like it a lot. From the very outset, the character of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is revealed through various scenes to be a very believable person. He's the only survivor of a violent train derailment, his marriage is on the brink, his son worships him, and his job as a security officer which doesn't seem like much, turns out to be one where he protects other people. Yet it's his very ordinariness that masks an as yet unseen ability to read others, brought to the fore once Elijah explains that he needs to develop his talent by being around other people.
I've thought about the comic book/super hero angle as it relates to the picture, and I don't know if it was really necessary. Almost certainly, the opening scenes citing comic book collectors is bound to turn off a lot of viewers who will say that comics are for kids and not to be taken seriously. If I were making the film, I probably would have left that out and just started right in with the story. Making the connection later, say when David first visits Elijah's shop, might have been a better way to introduce the super hero concept. I also had to question the unlikely coincidence of Elijah hooking up with David's wife (Robin Wright) as his therapist; it could have been the result of Elijah's secretly checking out David's background, but that was never mentioned specifically.
Those few quibbles aside, I think this was a well written and well developed story. For Shyamalan, this picture made two winners in a row following "The Sixth Sense" of the prior year. Then unfortunately, at least for me, he had three disappointing films with "Signs", "The Village" and "Lady in the Water". Of the first two, I think this picture had the better twist at the finale, or at least the one I didn't see coming.