Unbreakable

On the surface "Unbreakable" is a complex film. The great questions of philosophy, Life and Death, are postured and pontificated on, superficially, within the context of this film, with no absolute resolution. Yet at the center, at the core of "Unbreakable" there is a simple question. And it is by way of this simple question genius is presented.

The genius of M. Night Shyamalan.

The question: How many days of your life have you been sick?

David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a security guard, does not know the actual answer to this question. So he asks his wife, Megan (Robin Wright Penn). But since she is barely speaking to him, the answer is not immediately forthcoming. When it does come, it is quietly unsettling: She cannot recall the last time he was sick. In fact, she cannot recall any time he was sick.

A simple question. A relatively simple answer.

A simple situation.

Or is it? Add the following to the mix and things suddenly aren't so, well, simple: Dunn asks this question of his wife shortly after he was in a train wreck.

A train wreck that killed everyone on board.

Everyone, that is, but Dunn, who does not have so much as a scratch on him.

How is this possible?

In simplicity is certain genius. The genius here is how director/writer M. Night Shyamalan takes the known, the familiar and makes it something down right terrifying and unnerving.

Now the question posed to Dunn originally came to him in the form of a note. An unsigned note. Why it was sent is a valid question.

But who sent it is more so.

'Who' is a man named Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson). He runs a rather upscale comic book store. Elijah, unlike Dunn, has spent a lot of days in his life sick. He has also had a lot of broken bones, including some that came when he was born.

Because of his suffering Price has taken to asking questions. Deep questions. Since he is the way he is, is there someone his opposite? Yes. Dunne. And if Dunne is the way he is, what does it all mean?

Back to the superficial complexity of this film. Where you might find the answer.

Or not.

"Unbreakable", like M. Night Shyamalan's previous work, "The Sixth Sense", is the sort of film or movie no longer made: A quiet, yet disturbing, slow-moving, yet intriguing work that causes you, by its very methodical approach to a simple premise, to follow along until you can no longer escape its grasp. Of course, once you reach the point of no return you really don't want to escape. You want to go on and on, until the very end.

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