Unbreakable (2000)
Some things are only revealed by accident
Time for an old twist. It’s okay to laugh at that, it’s actually a pun! Alright, so perhaps he isn’t heralded as the same mastery of the twist as he once was, but M. Night had a run back in the day where he was non-sarcastically tied to the moniker of “twist king” and for a decent reason. Sure, maybe it was just an unassuming populace not scouring every scene and moment to read ahead twelve steps, but be it what it may have been things still played out in that certain way. Of course, here I am watching a movie more than a decade after it was released as if any sort of spoiler wouldn’t exist for it - but memory is fickle as glass, and the cinema, well, the cinema is Unbreakable.
So here’s the thing, twist-wise I’d say this one is (for a modern watcher) perhaps a bit weak. As is typical of my reviews these days, I’m not going to get too much into the plot related fine points, because if you want that you should just watch that yourself - but I do have some stuff to say about it in general sense regardless. See, a good plot twist sets things up long before hand - but does it in a slight way, a very shadowy blending of the insinuation that keeps itself irrelevant until the big reveal. Alternatively, a good “surprise” twist usually comes out of nowhere, lacking any substance or foreshadowing because it wasn’t thought up until the moment - such as if Captain Kirk suddenly revealed he was a Terminator. Would it be a surprise that could potentially flip everything on it’s head? Yes. It is, however, lacking any proper setup and therefore it literally only is a thing when all of a sudden Kirk-inator starts having people talk to his hand. Sometimes a plot twist leans a little to heavy into the foreshadowing, making it quite obvious - and then other times, a plot twist itself is so understated that it barely feels like any twist existed in the first place. Years of watching movies and consuming various media has some effect on this as well - the more you consume, the more you foresee. In this case, I feel part of it falls into that last category - it seems like a rather obvious outcome, which makes the twist seem less like a reveal and more like a conclusion, but how much of that is largely based on all that media consumption is hard to say. Beyond that though, remember, this is forever after the release, even if I had “forgotten” whatever people had said about the movie, it would still be rattling about in there to help lessen the impact of a good twist.
That aside, lets talk plot in that loose way that I do. It’s a comic book movie - and that’s no spoiler, given the absolute proliferation of comics throughout. Don’t confuse that with it being a comic book movie however - at least as far as I know this isn’t some DC or Marvel thing that got made into a movie way back when (otherwise more people would probably herald this as the “first good comic movie”). Still, it’s very much fitting and works its way throughout the movie. It’s not just about comic content, but the comics play an integral role in a characters upbringing and being, so it’s a bit of a multiple level of things. It’s used as a way to communicate ideas, while also taking the time to mirror aspects of it as well. A man is in a train wreck where everyone dies, and yet comes out unharmed. He finds a man who seems to have all sorts of theories, and the desire to find an answer might just be needed. Meanwhile, the man who beat the train is dealing with some personal problems in the family life, and everything slowly builds towards the conclusion.
Some of the mystery is in the story yes, but some of it is also in the editing. Things hop around a little bit, leaving details out or filling them in as it goes to try and maximize how long it can keep you guessing towards where it’s headed. It’s not totally ineffective, however I would argue there is more mystery involved in if the family will end up staying together than how the more comic-themed elements will play out. Still, it tells a cohesive story despite it’s occasional time skip, and more so than that the editing helps make things look nice. Yeah, even though it’s a bluray you can tell it was an early on one - ranging from the constant technology name dropping on the previews and in the overall film quality being a bit grainier than some of the other discs out there (which honestly just makes me appreciate the quality of the Alien BR that much more). Past the editing room and into the hands of the camera guy and director, they also do a lot of things with motion and racking zooms to make things feel more lively - sometimes to good effect for an impressive shot, but more often than not just to help things feel like they are moving even if it’s just two characters standing in a room talking.
What a train wreck.
Of course, if you take all that talent with a camera and editing and still throw in lousy actors, the movie is going to be a slog. The main cast here does a darn good job, particularly the leads. It could be argued that Willis’ performance comes off a bit… dull - perhaps, to reference a previous review, a bit Bill Murray. I don’t necessarily think that it’s a case of bad acting - it very much feels that it’s intentional that way, as if it’s all trying to show how bored of it all and perhaps even depressed the character is, much like the average human who feels like they aren’t going anywhere in there life. On the other side of that is Jackson, who for a man with a medical condition has an intense enthusiasm about his comic-based dreams and theories that stands as a good counterpoint to Willis in performance. The wife character and kid are both a little bit mixed bag, usually good but occasionally feeling like perhaps their all isn’t in it. Again, perhaps intentional, I’m not sure. Supporting characters do a fine job for how much they actually exist in the movie, which in all honesty isn’t a whole lot.
The line deliveries, regardless of how much emotion or enthusiasm may be behind them, are all pretty well done. You hear everything you need to hear, regardless of whatever music might be going in the background. The soundtrack works nicely for the movie, although not beating out things I’ve been hearing more recently (like that western sounding jive of The Mandalorian). Arguably, I feel like it’s relatively on par with modern Marvel movies as far as themes go, although said movies also have a way more meaty scoring behind them with a broader orchestration to help. It plays well with setting up emotional queues in scenes, or trying to add a little bit of tension, but it also doesn’t mostly stand out. Likewise towards most the audio effects - they all work pretty well, but there isn’t an absolute ton of stand outs in there, with the exception of a spill down some stairs that uses some very nice symbolism both in audio and comparatively with items and characters in the scene.
This movie is largely more of a drama in (at least then) modern times then it is necessarily an action packed hero flick of the current generation. This, largely, is to point out that there isn’t a ton of real stand out noticeable effects. We get some objects breaking here and there, or the occasional medical scene or device with subtle elements to it there, maybe even some scrapes - but for the most part, the fanciest thing you’ll see here is an underwater shot towards the final arc. It works wonderful for the budget, but won’t particularly attract any of the action or popcorn fans out there. Still, if you want that somewhat slow burn mystery it works rather alright, and if you like drama it would be my opinion that it does just as fine a job at that. It’s a great little almost low-fantasy setting that I can really understand why it ended up spawning more sequels to play it out further.
They so opposite the only thing that’s missing is one being a lady.
In the end, perhaps the years after wasn’t the greatest as far as lasting impact after viewing, but the movie itself is still pretty decent. It has some interesting character stories to it, and despite some of the characters feeling rather hoo-hum in performance it actually ends up working out quite well in what I believe is an intentional way. It’s interesting enough that I can see looking into the others of this three-part set at some point, although perhaps giving some time between them to liven things up isn’t a damaging idea. Probably would be more enjoyable to a wider audience then the average movie I enjoy, but I’d say it’s easily worth a rental before anything else - just in case the energy levels aren’t quite enough to keep a watcher entertained.