Unbreakable

M. Night Shyamalan's reputation was very different in 2000 during the release of Unbreakable, following the success of The Sixth Sense, than it is today following quite a few disasters. My first introduction to his work was the critically blasted The Happening which is something of a guilty pleasure for me and fits well within the 'so bad it's almost good' territory. But when I finally saw The Sixth Sense I understood how much of a u-turn the director's career had taken. This was made even clearer for me when I recently saw Unbreakable...

I didn't know what to really expect going in but it starts strong as we see a run-down Bruce Willis on a train. Just within a few minutes Shyamalan's focused direction tells us everything we need to know about the character before an accident sees almost everyone on the train die. Somehow Willis survives and meets Samuel L. Jackson's character who has a bizarre theory. Shyamalan keeps the story focused with long takes and a simplistic narrative structure that made Unbreakable a surprise for me.

Unfortunately Shyamalan somehow went wrong along the way and lost his handle that made him an interesting director. I can see how he wanted to play The Happening as b-movie but he should have aimed higher as the end result was an unexpected comedy; one that I couldn't ever recommend. However, following what I heard about 2016's Split, he could be back on track and has plans to make a sequel to Unbreakable.

I'd say that this is almost great and succeeds in every area that it aims for with the exception of an odd directive choice at the end. I can see Shyamalan wanted to provide closure but it comes so far from out of the blue that it was distracting. Regardless, the rest of the film is really good and well worth watching.