Unbreakable

"Unbreakable"
M. Night Shyamalan, 2000

This film has a superb collection of actors and filmmakers. There is Bruce Willis, who plays a security guard who is the only survivor in a train derailment, and Samuel L. Jackson, who plays his opposite as an eccentric comic book collector whose bones are so fragile that they shatter at the slightest impact. It is nicely shot by the cinematographer Eduardo Serra, James Newton Howard provides the score, Dylan Tichenor of "Brokeback Mountain" and "There Will be Blood" is the editor, and Richard King, who did brilliant work on "Master and Commander," is the sound editor.

The reason that I am methodically going through this checklist of filmmakers is to ascertain where in the hell "Unbreakable" went wrong. All signs point to its director, M. Night Shyamalan, and to the lack of an essential element - a decent script. His story has some potential: it is an every-man take on superheroes, a slow-paced examination of a man who is unwilling to, but slowly beginning to accept, his unusual powers. But many things go wrong. Most of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, the acting has a strange and artificial quality to it, there are many moments of unintentional hilarity; and the ending is lame, or rather, it is feebly played out, reduced to a couple of pre-credit sentences describing what happened in the likely climatic moment.

What makes "Unbreakable" such a frustrating film is that it has excellent moments and excellent technical work by the filmmakers I mentioned above - of particular note is Willis' on-board experience minutes before the train disaster, and a very suspenseful and nicely constructed sequence where Willis uses his power to try to save hostages from a psychopath. But ultimately, it is too little too late; "Unbreakable" is a prelude to Shyamalan's later and reportedly even more disappointing efforts.

Rating: 3

First Viewed: 8/10/08, on Blu-ray Disc - IMDb