For my money, the best M. Night Shyamalan film by a mile, 2000's UNBREAKABLE followed his huge first hit "The Sixth Sense" but broke new ground for him as a writer/director.
The film opens with David Dunn (Bruce Willis at his stoic best) on a Philadelphia commuter train. The camera slowly moves right and left during the credits as you learn a lot about Dunn, his marriage and his character on board the train.
Suddenly, Dunn and the passengers are victims of a huge rail tragedy, with David emerging unscathed as the sole survivor.
This draws the attention of our second main character, Elijah Price, played with intensity and style by Samuel L. Jackson. Elijah is convinced that there is more to Dunn than meets the eye, envisioning him as a modern day superhero with powers out of sight but within his grasp.
Dunn's family is soon drawn into Price's theory, wrestling with a shaky marriage and plenty of questions on how David survived.
Robin Wright is excellent as Dunn's wife, nearly separated but somehow renewed by his survival.
As Elijah and David circle each other, more more of Price's backstory emerges. Ever sInce birth (well told in a haunting pre-credits sequence that sets the tone for the film) Elijah has spent life in a wheelchair, cursed with a rare disease that renders his bones fragile.
These two men, one UNBREAKABLE and one nearly ready to SPLIT in two at any moment, become friends, confidants and then...to say anything more would be a crime.
Shyamalan does the best writing of his career here in my opinion, layering puzzle pieces and reveals on top of each other with skill and precision.
His constant music partner James Newton Howard provides one of his best scores throughout, building tragedy and suspense in equal measure and tone.
Note the great camerawork and direction during the opening train scene and how its perfectly echoed later in the film when our camera lurks outside the storm blown blinds at the house where David has followed the Orange Suit Man. Both scenes reveal plenty about David, at different ends of his character arc. Perfectly shot and directed, visually intrusive but suspenseful, its one of many artistic choices M. Night makes in his best film to date and they all pay off.
The last 45 minutes of the film are nearly perfect, all the way up to the final reveal.
Followed quietly and in fascinating style 17 years later by Shyamalan's SPLIT in 2017, UNBREAKABLE is one of my all time Top 100 and gets an A+.
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