And you thought X-MEN was the best super hero movie

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2001)

UNBREAKABLE (2000) ***1/2 Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark.
WARNING: THIS COMMENT CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS
1999 was an unforgettable year for M. Night Shyamalan. A film called THE SIXTH SENSE came unnoticed, with no expectations, and suddenly became not only the second most successful picture of that year (the first was, of course, THE PHANTOM MENACE), but also one of the most successful films of all times, for the surprise of many people, especially Shyamalan. In 2000 another surprise came: THE SIXTH SENSE received 5 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director. Surprises were part of this film indeed, especially the disturbing, amazing twist in the end, that many of us will never forget. Shyamalan had much to celebrate, but soon he was involved with another project: UNBREAKABLE, with THE SIXTH SENSE star Bruce Willis. It became one of the most expected films of 2000 and when it was released... many people that were expecting SIXTH SENSE- PART II got disappointed with the result, because they wanted to see a film even better than the first and a twist even more surprising, and what they got was something very different.
In fact, there are some similarities between UNBREAKABLE and THE SIXTH SENSE: the style, the cinematography, the unusual camera angles, the same star, the presence of a boy and the aura of "a mystery to be solved". But, even with some supernatural stuff, there are no ghosts that don't know they are dead nor a child who sees dead people in UNBREAKABLE. It tries -and succeeds- to mix two different genres: the cinema and the comic books, in an unusual and melancholic story of a super hero.
David Dunn (Willis) is the only person to survive in a terrible train accident. He didn't even had a scratch, what puzzles the doctors and the families of the dead, but he let it pass and continues living his life, until he receives a note asking what was the last time he got sick. This note takes him to a weird man called Elijah Price (Jackson), a comic books fan and collector, who makes David see the truth around him. As a mystery film, UNBREAKABLE is terrific. Some events of the past and some tiny details serve as clues that make David finds out, little by little, that he is a super hero, a kind of "unbreakable" man whose "cryptonite" is... water, and he has a mission with the society. That helps him to find love in his family again, but some things are not very well explained yet.
UNBREAKABLE is a puzzle, but not exactly the kind of puzzle THE SIXTH SENSE was. In the 1999 film the pieces took right to the end. Here the pieces slowly take to a conclusion, but there's still something hidden, what will be shown in the last scene. It's like a jigsaw that you're almost completing, but when you're about to join the last pieces you realize that a single piece is missing. The end was maybe the exact point of disagreement in this movie: some people thought it was great, but the majority thought it almost spoiled the whole thing. I saw the film in January and I still think it was an abrupt, but very coherent conclusion. There's no way to say what I want without spoiling the end, so as you've already been warned, here it goes: UNBREAKABLE has all the elements of a good comic book, so it might have a real villain. As Jackson's character say, the hero and the villain begin as friends many times and suddenly become enemies because of an ambiguous act of the latter. Here we have David Dunn and Elijah Price as two uncommon people, one being just the opposite of the other. The first thinks he is being helped by the latter to know the truth about himself. Well, he is, but not in the correct way. Price/Glass was just trying to find the exact opposite of him, but for that he had to... kill people, create disasters of epic proportions. He suffered all his life with his condition but Dunn/Raincoat can't understand that and becomes his #1 enemy. The condition of hero/villain, bad/ugly is so old as the world, and UNBREAKABLE portrays it extremely well. As in THE SIXTH SENSE, the film wouldn't be complete without the ending twist. It is a bit abrupt indeed, but not arbitrary.
UNBREAKABLE begins as a quite cold film, but it started to stay with me as the charade started to make sense. Maybe this was what M. Night Shyamalan wanted, and he succeeds in building a beautiful piece of mystery. The cinematography is terrific and the unusual camera angles make justice to masterpieces like PSYCHO. The direction is great and the writing improves with time. If Bruce Willis was overshadowed by Haley Joel Osment in THE SIXTH SENSE, here he has place to show that he is a good actor, not a great one. The best performances come from Samuel L. Jackson (haunting) and the very talented Robin Wright Penn. Spencer Treat Clark isn't nearly as good as Osment, but he has some future. By the way, he takes part in the only out of place scene in the movie: when he points a gun to Willis- a scene that lacks credibility.
UNBREAKABLE is not a masterpiece, but it is a great film. It didn't deserve so many bland reviews and fans of THE SIXTH SENSE shouldn't be so disappointed. Shyamalan's work is original, intense, surprising, suspenseful and even poetic and sweet at times. It was one of the few movies in 2000 that deserved to be seen on the big screen.