Coroner’s Corner
Broken Expectations???
by John Bikowski
illustration by Eric Johnson
I’m liking the latest trend in Hollywood. It seems that more and more filmmakers are no longer afraid to end a film on a downbeat note or with a shocking surprise. Consider the chain of events leading to the brain splatter in American Beauty. Or how about the realization concerning Bruce Willis in the final moments of The Sixth Sense. When I saw that film I was like, “Whoa… dude!” and then I wanted to see it again. If you are one of those people who say “I knew he was dead. Man, it was so freakin’ obvious!” Well, you’re full of shit. I don’t believe you. So it seems that M. Night Shyamalan (the director) and Bruce Willis have teamed up again to bewilder audiences with Unbreakable.
This time Willis plays a troubled husband whose young son is suffering greatly because their family unit is crumbling. Bruce is out pondering a career move to New York which will separate him from his wife and child. To make matters much worse, the train bringing him home derails and tears apart everyone on board. Everyone, that is, except for him. He escapes without a scratch. Word of this minor miracle makes it to Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a comic book junkie with a nasty bone disorder. Whenever he sustains even a minor injury, his bones shatter like glass. After suffering through almost 60 breaks, he understandably finds Bruce’s seemingly indestructible bones quite interesting.
Dramatic tension unfolds as Samuel begins to hound Bruce’s family with bizarre ideas. He thinks that Bruce is some type of super hero destined to protect the human race. From here, the plot slowly unfurls in a sequence of circumstances that either support Samuel’s claims or are merely coincidences. We find out that Bruce has never been ill. We also find out that Bruce was not even injured in a car accident that probably should have been fatal. There is also a bit about his uncanny instincts as a security guard; he can pinpoint people who have violent or criminal tendencies. During the course of all of these revelations, Bruce transforms from thinking that Samuel is nuts to an unwilling believer himself. As the super hero angle builds in tension, the relationship between wife, husband and son seems to ease and begin healing. Bruce no longer feels something is missing in his life and starts to feel his true purpose. There is a great scene between him and his son in which Bruce’s curiosity about his special powers urges him to bench press everything they can find.
Samuel eventually convinces Bruce to actually use his supposed abilities to save a family from a psychotic killer. Finally realizing that Samuel has changed his life for the better, Bruce visits him and learns the terrible secret that provides the twist ending. I won’t give it away. However, I didn’t think Unbreakable had the same impact as The Sixth Sense with the twist technique. Granted, the theme of living in a comic book also contributed to the film style, but the final revelation has an artificial feel that reminds me of Creepshow (a silly but entertaining film). See this film, because despite its minor flaws, there is some highly stylized filmwork and interesting character development. Much more so than in your everyday comic book.