Very well done film about self-discovery and remarkably; works as a superhero film as well.

Rating: 7/10 (27 February 2008)

About three quarters of the way into Unbreakable, I was thinking of some very high praise indeed of director M Night Shyamalan; I was thinking that this film that he has made here is probably what 2000s X-Men would've looked like had Stanley Kubrick still been alive and had he been obscure enough to take on such a project. High praise, indeed. Oddly enough, X-Men came out in the same calendar year as Unbreakable but sadly, that is where the similarities end.
So if Unbreakable is Kubrick crossed with X-Men, it should be an up in the air, some good-some bad, topsy-turvy picture about characters who have problems whilst at the same, maintaining a strong visual and aesthetical sense when dealing with themes and notions  erm; well Unbreakable does have an impressive cast and it does slowly, in an eerie and mythical sort of a way, build up to a point where it explodes in a bout of emotion as a certain character suffers an epiphany that lasts a few scenes; but apart from those things, Unbreakable is a steady if not unspectacular ride through the actual psyche of a superhero. Unbreakable was made at a time when super hero films were not really of a common nature: Batman had been and then been respectively killed off; Superman had enjoyed some success but had died a death following a lacklustre 80s sequel or two and most other superheroes like Flash Gordon or Supergirl were given nothing more than camp live action cartoons for films.
But then you have Unbreakable, a film that has its idea as: What if you were a superhero, you just didn't know it yet? David Dunn (Willis) plays everyday man-come-superhero who is stronger and more aware than he thinks; using telekinetic powers and the ability to predict things before they have a realistic chance of happening. Then you have Elijah Price (Jackson), the fittingly named Mr. Glass as his bones are so weak, he so much as even sneezes violently, he could do himself some serious damage. There are two things that play on the audience's minds from this: the first is Dunn's moody and depressed attitude he has but also his mysteriousness that he carries, especially after surviving a train wreck in the first scene. The second is the vulnerability to Price; a man who would be willing to chase a man down a flight of subway stairs if it meant putting himself at great risk, but proving to himself at least, that he was correct in assuming something. This is where we wince and cringe as Price puts himself at risk for various items of information; an impressive thing to be able to do in a film.
Close attention has also been paid to the way the film looks and the way it has been shot; I think Shyamalan has, in all of his films regardless of overall quality, shot and produced wonderful cinematography to capture the mood and feel of the film; be it of the depressing, dreamlike or fairytale variety. Here, the long takes and bleak cinematography compliment the camera work which is vast in its moving around and tracking as it focuses on its subjects. The camera-work retains a certain point of view feeling; there the very first scene to talk about in which we see Dunn and a random woman talk on the train; we see it from through the gap in the seats in front, retaining a child-like quality for the composition since I feel it's the sort of thing a child may do when fed up and sitting on a train; this echo's Shyamalan's later film Lady in the Water which itself was a child-like fable. But, there is also sweeping camera over the roof of Dunn's car as he finds the note from Price; again, this was a sort of point of view composition as the director utilises reflections and patterns on screen.
I think Unbreakable is a fascinating film for other reasons, though. I think it's quite funny how, nearer the beginning, Price tries to talk to Willis' character about how he could well be this hard-bodied superhero and Willis plays him down. This is, of course, Willis going against what he had been doing practically his whole career up to this point: playing the hard-bodied action guy but now he is denying that he has any kind of those characteristics; interesting to read further into it, is that Willis played a clam and more sedate character in Shyamalan's previous film The Sixth Sense. However, while the look of the film is impressive and the camera work long, slow and deliberate; Price seems to be convinced a little too easily that Dunn is his man since there are more disasters that happen in the world that Price would lead us onto believe; does the man Price is looking for have to be American? There is also the segment that focuses on Dunn trying to re-fall in love with his estranged wife that seems a little out of place in a film all about finding ones identity within.
But while the climax and the denouement would have Dunn rather obviously facing his fears whilst systematically coming to terms with whom or what he is, some may complain it is too short and sudden to be entertaining and too incidental to feel original. While these are small complaints, Unbreakable remains a strong and teasing picture about self-discovery; about what it's like to find yourself and about what it's like to help people; to stand up and be responsible when you discover you are able to be. Shyamalan may not have made a masterpiece but he has made a film that is interesting and unpredictable for the best part while making us want more after it has finished.