Shattered: 'Unbreakable' Not Quite Air-Tight

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's last film, The Sixth Sense, left viewers discussing and lauding praise long after the film had ended. The after-movie conversation of viewers of his latest movie, Unbreakable, however, will be nothing more than confused audiences attempting to discern what they have just witnessed.

The trailers for Unbreakable show Bruce Willis as David Dunn, the only survivor of a disastrous train wreck, and Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, who seeks Dunn out to offer an explanation for his good fortune. No mention is made of comic books or their applications to real life, which appears to be Shyamalan's thesis and purpose for making this movie, and a metaphor debated frequently throughout the film. The twist ending of this film, a trick that Shyamalan became famous for in The Sixth Sense both supports and distorts the metaphor, and leaves the viewer unsure about whether the ending is an attempt to make a profound statement or overthrow any sense of seriousness.

Unbreakable begins dramatically, with comic book collecting statistics filling the screen before the story of Elijah's birth. Time transitions to the future and Bruce Willis on the train immediately before its crash. All of the movie's action is contained in these first few scenes, and the rest of the movie is simply a series of reactions to the train crash.

Shyamalan effectively manipulates camera angles, perspective and the use of silence to create tension, but seems unsure about when to take his storyline seriously. Some of the film's most comic lines come at scenes with the most drama and the laughter in the theater disturbs the somber mood, while many short scenes seem tangential at best. The acting in the movie, including Robin Wright Penn and Spencer Treat Clark as Dunn's wife and son, is solid and the movie is technically impressive despite its holes in coherence.

Unbreakable is enjoyable to watch, although the beginning is rather slow. Shyamalan spends too much time introducing his characters and having them contemplate their relative situations before bringing them anywhere. The ending of the movie, in contrast, is too abrupt, and out of context with the rest of the film. The surprise of the ending, like other aspects of the film, is very obviously foreshadowed moments before it happens, which detracts from the emotional shock. Perhaps Unbreakable would have benefited from additional editing or a different director, because Shyamalan is unable to convey the point of his script to his viewer.

There is no gripping plot in Unbreakable. Rather, the movie appears to be more of an intellectual journey asking questions about what is possible. The believability of Dunn's survival and subsequent discoveries is not debated extensively, but instead is used as evidence to ascertain why such a survival is possible. The entire middle section of the movie is devoted to Dunn's deciding whether to believe Elijah's hypothesis about the accident. Shyamalan does an effective job of bringing the viewer along with the characters; the evidence Dunn considers and the conclusions he reaches are clear and seem logical. However, the larger ideas of the film are not as clear to the audience, and can leave many a viewer as a skeptic.

The Sixth Sense was successful for many reasons. It was scary, shocking, and made a viewer want to watch again to see what he had missed. Unfortunately, Shyamalan does not show the same mastery of suspense in his latest film. While the movie may be entertaining to watch and interesting to think about, Unbreakable is certainly not as solid as its name might suggest.