Bruce Willis in "Unbreakable."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film an: Stars: Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson Director: M. Night Shyamalan Rated: PG-13 Length: 107 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(November 24, 2000) -- M. Night Shyamalan follows his ghost-story sensation, The Sixth Sense, with Unbreakable, an even more outlandish thriller.

While the earlier film dealt in the spiritual realm, Unbreakable brings unprecedented flesh-and-blood reality to the world of the comic book hero.

Unbreakable is the antidote to all those cardboard-cutout caped-crusader sagas that persistently plague Hollywood. To say more on that point would spoil the fun.

Once again, the young director's imagination and filmmaking skill make the implausible plausible -- and deeply engrossing.

Comparisons with The Sixth Sense are unavoidable, because Shyamalan is back with actor Bruce Willis, sets his story in Philadelphia and deals out a dark fantasy filled with twists and turns.

At the start, David Dunn, a college security guard, is the sole survivor of a horrific train wreck. While everyone else on the train dies, he hasn't a scratch.

Dunn feels confused, guilty and empowered with unexpected strength. His confusion is compounded when he meets the ominous comic-book collector Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), who offers an outrageous explanation for Dunn's good fortune.

Dunn is skeptical. But later, he begins to believe.

To say much more about the plot would be unfair.

Though Unbreakable lacks a bit of the narrative purity and shock of The Sixth Sense, it's still a bona fide original.

With these two films, Shyamalan puts himself smack in the tradition of fantasy storytellers, from Rod Serling and Ray Bradbury to Roald Dahl and Richard Matheson.

In addition, Shyamalan brings his offbeat tales to the screen with a brooding but impassioned style. (He even acts a little -- here he's the suspected drug dealer searched in line at the football stadium.)

Willis plays Dunn mostly as an accepting victim of fate; he does what he does because he feels compelled, not because he's especially heroic.

The actor also is affecting in a domestic subplot: Dunn and his wife (Robin Wright Penn) try to rebuild their crumbling marriage, while their young son (Spencer Treat Clark) struggles to understand the changes in Daddy.

Jackson, meanwhile, brings mystery and poignancy to Elijah, who has long suffered from a disease that's left his bones brittle and prone to frequent, painful fractures.

Shyamalan caught most of us by surprise with the audacious imagination of The Sixth Sense.

Though he can no longer sneak up on us, he's followed up that shocker with another offbeat winner.