Unbreakable in Unbearable

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2018)

I looked forward to M. Night Shymalan's Unbreakable with great anticipation. Shymalan's previous film as writer-director was last year's innovative thriller The Sixth Sense. I was, alas, pretty disappointed in this film. In the end, this film was not unbearably suspenseful, it was simply unbearable.
The film reunites Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson (Die Hard with a Vengeance and Pulp Fiction), two great actors wasted in a maudlin mess of mediocrity. Samuel L. Jackson plays a comic book collector suffering from a rare disease that leaves his bones brittle and easily broken. Bruce Willis plays a security guard who is the sole survivor of a disastrous train wreck. Not only has he survived, but he survived without a scratch. Could it be that he is unbreakable?
To be fair, there are inspired moments of writing here, but the whole is decidedly smaller than the parts. The film's tone is uneven--so much so that the audience laughed hysterically at one of the more dramatic scenes--and the acting is pretty flat. In fact, Shymalan's line from The Sixth Sense, "I see dead people" might be more relevant here. The central character follows a fairly traditional hero's quest, but the character has such a flat personality that I was left feeling pretty uninspired. The comic-book ending made the film seem even more disjointed. Throwing together a bunch of talented people does not necessarily result in a talented film.
If you are in the mood for heroes and unbreakable characters, I would recommend two other films currently playing rather than this lackluster loser. Remember the Titans is inspiring, relevant, and wonderfully told. Men of Honor is a wonderful story of courage and character. Both films deal with racism and heroic responses. These are both four-star films in my book. If you really want to see Unbreakable, wait for the video. This is a film that will not lose much in the transfer to the small screen, and if your expectations and the price of admission are a bit lower, you might even enjoy it.