Unbreakable |
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With The Sixth Sense, relative
newcomer M. Night Shaylaman proved that a deep story with
good characters and a few plot twists could be
successful, both artistically and financially. With his
new follow up, Unbreakable, he once again works his
magic. As both a writer and director Shaylaman excels
with a beautiful cinematic style and a brilliant plot. Unbreakable is the story of one man reluctantly discovering his strange hidden talents and the man who helps him discover them. Both men are complete opposites, with Bruce Willis playing a tough, quiet security guard and Samuel L. Jackson playing a character named Mr. Glass, who suffers from a rare condition that leaves him prone to breaking his bones very easily. Mr. Glass first tracks down Willis after finding out that he was the only survivor from a horrible train wreck with no other survivors. For most of his life, he has been trying to find a real "superhero," and Willis seems to fit the bill. The movie unfolds as Glass tries to find out if Willis really is what he thinks he is. One of the greatest things about Unbreakable is that it is purely a visual movie. This may sound redundant, but it's true. Director Shaylaman doesn't take the easy route out by flat out telling us information. He expects us to learn it by visual cues and by the actors' performances. Take the beginning scene, with Willis on the train for example. A director could tell us that Willis is having problems with his marriage by showing him argue with his wife before leaving, or something to that extent. We are shown that he isn't too happy with his marriage as he slides his wedding band off of his finger when an attractive woman sits in the seat next to him. After watching this, we aren't surprised by the exchange he and his wife share after she finds out he is alive. Another example of this great technique is when Willis saves a family from a man who has broken into their house and decided to stay there. The scene probably only took ten minutes, but those ten minutes seemed like forever with the pacing of the scene. Willis was in constant danger, and pretty much any dialogue would ruin this scene, in my opinion. A scene that can express so much emotion and tell so much story is really the sign of a great director. The camera work of Unbreakable really draws you into the movie. The camera doesn't stay still for long, and the movie is full of beautiful sweeps and pans. Shaylaman was known on the sixth sense to adhere to a strict color palette, and the same is true for Unbreakable. Much of the movie is soaked in dark and light grays, with the only difference being the browns and greens in the house of the main character. There are also some very nice effects when it came to the flashbacks and the images Willis sees when he discovers his talent. Shalyman has been known to avoid lavish special effects, which is refreshing in an age of 100 million dollar special effect blockbusters. The story moves at a slow pace so I wouldn't reccomend Unbreakable for anyone with a short attention span. Although the pace is slow, the movie is very rewarding when it finally gives you a little more information. Also, like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable does have sort of a twist ending. I don't know if Shaylaman feels obligated to do this with every movie he does, but it was very surprising indeed. A second watching of the film is necessary to pick up on all of the nuances of the plot. Unbreakable has excellent characters, a refreshing and original plot, and an involving visual quality. As I said before, you need to watch it twice to pick up on all of the nuances of the plot, and I wouldn't mind doing that at all. - Bob Mackey |
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| All text, original pictures and HTML © 2001 Bob Mackey. All rights reserved. |