Unbreakable (2000)

[StevePulaski]

Unbreakable (2000)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Samuel L. Jackson.

Rating: ★★★½

Two characters make up M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable and both are representative of two incredible dichotomies of the superhuman variety. Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) is the first we meet, a young man born with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, which renders his bones extremely fragile. As a result, Elijah lives a very sheltered, reserved life as a comic book art dealer, an occupation he imagined for himself as he lied in bed many nights reading entire series of comic books cover-to-cover. His love for heroes and villains knew no bounds.

Then there's David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a former college football quarterback who gave up his dreams, now living with his wife Audrey (Robin Wright) working as a security guard. Approaching middle-age with a young son, the two live a quiet life until David is aboard a train that derails on his way to work. David miraculously walks away from the accident without a scratch, and soon discovers he has abilities that range from being impenetrable and invulnerable, in addition to being equipped with strength to successfully benchpress over three-hundred pounds.

The two men wind up crossing paths at Elijah's gallery, upon David finding Elijah's card on the windshield of his car as his remarkable story of survival gains traction with the media. Elijah believes David is a kind of superhero; a complete contrast to him and his frail bone-structure. David brushes Elijah off, yet can't help but ponder the thought that he has never really been hurt nor sick all his life, with the exception of the time he almost drowned as a young boy. Elijah suggests that water is David's sole weakness, like Superman's kryptonite.

Unbreakable is the most dramatic a superhero origins story has ever been, proving that you can tell a story of a hero without the flash, the capes, the action sequences, and the nine-figure budget. M. Night Shyamalan, who also serves as writer and co-producer, turns his unique concept into a bold and satisfying picture, artfully done and immaculately directed. With gorgeous cinematography by Eduardo Serra that accentuates a mellowness thanks to rainy blues and inky blacks in the color pattern, Unbreakable is a lush film, only aided by Shyamalan's desire to keep his narrative roll slowburn to allow characters and motivations to simmer before boiling.

This is what sets even Shyamalan's worst projects apart from others. Even the most ludicrous ideas he's committed to film, like the plot of Signs, favor a respectable kind of slowburn narrative progression that allows a plot to form before anything tricky or elaborate is really done unto the storyline. The Sixth Sense operates in the same manner. It's not that Shyamalan is giving you a lot of character development, but, like a painter, he conceptualizes a realized canvas before he starts painting in the details or adding the icing to the layered cake. He's careful and precise, especially with Unbreakable, which might even be my favorite film of his.

Almost every shot of Shyamalan's Unbreakable has something fascinating going on within the frame. Consider David entering Elijah's gallery, where Shyamalan occasionally scenes that show the characters as far off in the distance, their voices echoing off of the long and vacant spaces of the building. Or even consider Shyamalan's medium-length shots or reliance on the pensive, often stiff facial expressions of both Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. His directorial carefulness is remarkably restrained for such a young director (Shyamalan was only 30 when he made this film), and as a result, him and Serra create a film that's so tonally developed that the overall film debatably works as a tone-poem just as much as it does a drama, a thriller, or a superhero story.

The beauty in Unbreakable, however, goes beyond the difficultly in trying to brand it with genres and subgenres, as it's such thoughtful amalgamation of all the components that often exist underneath the umbrella of a "superhero movie." Willis and Jackson give very subdued performances in a film that respects their capabilities as actors enough to allow them to breathe and to fully carry out Shyamalan's intentions with a subversive concept. It's gorgeous, risky, and potent in all the ways it should be.

Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, and Spencer Treat Clark. Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.