Bruce Willis stars as David Dunn, a sad sack security guard
who’s reluctantly getting a divorce from his wife Audrey (Robin Wright Penn).
He’s coming back home to Philadelphia from job hunting in New York City when the
train he’s on crashes. David winds up being the sole survivor of the crash--and
not only that, but he walked away without receiving so much as a scratch. In the
days that follow, David begins to reexamine some peculiar things about his life,
such as the fact that he has never gotten sick, ever. And he’s always had great
physical strength, to the point of it being almost unnatural.
When David finds a card stuck to the windshield of his car, he discovers that it
comes from Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), the owner of a high end comic book
art gallery. Price is an eccentric man who suffers from a rare disorder which
makes his bones very fragile. Always frail and in ill health, he’s taunted by
the nickname children had given him when he was a kid: Mr. Glass. Price is
convinced that comic books are the modern day purveyors of myth. Although
they’ve been commercialized and gussied up to sell more books, at their very
essence, comics tell a universal truth: that there are real heroes in this
mundane world. And Price thinks he’s found just such a hero in David.
Released in late 2000, years before Smallville and Heroes would use the very
same concept, Unbreakable was basically a superhero movie--but one that was
told in a very subtle, realistic way. There are no costumes, no super heroic
scenes of high camp, just an intelligently thought out story about what would
happen when an average man discovered that he was not so average after all.
Bruce Willis gives a great, low-key performance as David, and he’s very
sympathetic. Robin Wright Penn is also excellent; she turns what could just be
a typical, shrill distraught wife part into a flesh and blood human being.
Samuel L. Jackson, a rabid comic book collector in real life, also shines as
Elijah Price. Jackson's love of comics has served him well, because he would later
lend his voice to The Incredibles, another marvelous take on superheroes.
Although writer/director M. Night Shyamalan tells this tale in a understated
manner, he still doesn’t ignore the vital superhero mythos, which electrifies
the scenes when David finally realizes his potential and steps up to the plate
for the first time as a true superhero. Unbreakable is an origin movie, much
like the first Superman film or Batman Begins were, and like all great super
heroic origin films, the arrival of the hero has made the world a much better
place.
The two-disc DVD is loaded with special features, mainly on the second disc,
including a great documentary called "Comic Books And Superheroes", featuring
interviews with such comic book greats as Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Alex Ross,
Denny O’Neil and more. There’s also deleted scenes, a look at the train station
sequence, and a very good "making of" documentary. Unbreakable is that rarest
of fantasy films: one which creates a fantastic situation that might actually
happen. And yet deep within its somber tones lies the exhilaration of watching
a myth slowly come to life. The next time you're in the mood for a superhero
movie--or just for a great movie, period--give Unbreakable a try.
--SF
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