I really enjoyed Unbreakable and the more I think about it the more I like it. M. Night Shyamalan is firmly on my "must see" list.
His films are remarkably low-key considering their subject matter and there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a "secondary" plot-line. As in The 6th Sense where the mother/son relationship was as important as the husband/wife relationship as the doctor/patient as the clairvoyant/spirit------all about trust and communication at different levels-------- so too in Unbreakable there doesn't seem to be any part of the film that takes a back seat to the "main" story.
Willis' and Wright's marriage woes and the relationship of father to son and, with Jackson and Woodard, mother to son are all as important as the discoveries made between Jackson and Willis. Shyamalan's handling of family relationships is particularly deft.
******SPOILERS AHEAD*********
I didn't solve the mystery of this until it was revealed to me. It made perfect sense and was actually much more obvious than the revelation at the end of The 6th Sense, I just forgot that I was following a comic book construct. I got so wrapped up in everything else that I forgot there was something to figure out. If it had been a snake it would have bit me. One of my companions figured it out early on and was absolutely dead certain by the time Glass crosses the street in the purple-lined trench coat chasing the terrorist at the stadium. At any rate I felt a leetle bit dumb for not having caught it but nothing too awful.
I loved thinking that whether or not Dunn really was a superhero he was a hero in his son's eyes simply because he was Dad. Even if you have a lousy Dad you go through a period of your life when you're sure he's a superhero. The image of the day to day heroism of the family unit, of the little miracles that we perform for the ones we love really grabbed me. There wasn't any fan-fare, no Hallmark spotlight of Sentimentality, like I said, the movie is very low-key.
The scene in the kitchen with the gun was best in its ending. It was a bit of a stretch to get into but the actors made it work and then you're into the scene and not thinking about how they got there. Excellent climax, drained, relieved, sheltered from one another but also joined by the family dinner table they're gathered around.
I absolutely ached for Glass. To have such hatred for his own phisiognomy and to know that being the antithesis of the hero's it therefore doomed him to bee the villain. Every little thing that he described in the panel was there to point out to the viewer how to recognize him as the villain. When he meets Dunn at the stadium and they're shot in silhouette Glass is bigger than Dunn and his hair makes his head look disproportionately large. The eccentricities of dress and habit. The hideousness of his birth.
Favorite shots: Mother Glass and son refelcted in the television set is probably my favorite shot of the whole film and at the very end when Dunn carries his wife up the stairs. It's a very strange angle and she's obviously on a lift but it gives the impression that his strength makes her nearly weightless. The boy in this is really very good. CG mentioned him from Gladiator where he turned in an excellent performance, but he also played the son in Double Jeopardy and in Arlington Road. Neither of those films required as much of him, but I think it's a good indication that we'll see more of him.
BTW M. Night Shyamalan played the drug dealer that Willis pats down at the stadium standing in line at the hot-dog stand.
