Unbreakable

It's been years since I've seen this, but it still holds up. Big time. But what struck me most upon rewatching it is that people classifying it as a superhero film are mislabeling it. It's a horror film. Full stop. It simply uses the notion of comic books as the premise. The entire tone is that of a thriller.

I looked around for clues the second time that Mr. Glass is the Big Bad, and I am both happy and unhappy to report there are no real story clues to it, the way there was to the end revelation of The Sixth Sense. What it DOES do is make thematic sense. Not simply for the reasons Elijah believes as his destiny of a supervillain. But the truth is Elijah was getting way more close and personal into David's life than an actual good person would. The biggest hindsight clue that Glass is bad isn't found in out of context clues you see the second time around. It's that his behavior in the film is stalkerish and creepy, and as far as his confrontation in the other guy's comic shop is concerned, outright hostile.

I am undecided if the first time we see David being him hiding his wedding ring to flirt with a stranger is the right intro or not. We aren't made privy he's separated at that point, and he simply seems skeevy. I don't know if that's the right introduction. What I will say is that for people who didn't know the premise beforehand, this isn't something Superman ever does, so you part of you is as resistant believing this as he is.

The biggest laugh in the movie is when he son suggests putting more weight on the barbells and he surprisingly says "All right." That was super funny, and basically the only thing in the movie that was.

I don't agree with Elijah that comics are an art form not suitable for children. But c'mon, a sketch for a four-year-old? What's the dude thinking? I don't even think Elijah even needs to have a point to think he sucks. He's just a crappy father because he's getting his 4-year-old a gift no 4-year-old would want.

The clips from The Powerpuff Girls and I Am Weasel frustrated me. They're Warner Bros clips, right? Do you know WHAT stuff the film should have paid the WB licenses to include? Superman. Batman. You know. Actual comic book characters. I take the film's exploration of comic books with a huge grain of salt because it uses made-up examples rather than actual comic books. Price mentions Kryptonite ONCE, but nothing else is from an actual comic book. Kevin Smith also worked for Miramax / Disney around this time, and there are still plenty of actual references to real sci-fi and superheroes in his stuff.

Back when people believed Shyamalan was a better film director than he was, people were clamoring for a follow-up to this. It's an origin story for David Dunn in this movie, and people wanted to see the next step and him in an actual superhero film. "Glass" as a film was NOT what people wanted to see. And maybe people expecting a superhero film for the sequel weren't being realistic. Shyamalan, especially at that stage of his career, wasn't afforded big enough budgets to do a legit superhero movie. But the truth is, even though he wasn't, and even if "Glass" always needed to be as light on the superheroics as this was, that doesn't change the fact that the script to this movie is solid, and Glass's is terrible. I find it hard to believe it was written by the same guy.

Why is this script so much better? It's not the twist ending. The reason I think this is a great film was due to the scene where his kid points the gun at David. That was masterfully written scene full of pathos and more interesting to me than a trick ending ever could be. I thought that whatever malaise David feels in his family and marriage, he's a great father for the way he handled it. Very quickly he realizes saying "Elijah was wrong" is the exact wrong thing to say. It makes his son dig in, and WANT to prove that he's right. Instead David says if he shoots him, he's gonna leave and go to New York, and he'll never see him again. Whether David actually believes the gun will harm him or not, that was brilliant. He accepts his son's frame that he'll survive the gunshot, but suggests that if it happens, he's leaving even if he does. He gives the son actual motivation to not shoot him without actually telling the kid he's wrong and Elijah's crazy. That wouldn't work not just because the son was right. But because the more he pushed back on the idea, the more the kid would dig in. Instead David accepts the idea and lets him son know there will still be major negative consequences if he's right. And after he gets and unloads the gun, all three characters in the scene sit down and take a deep shuddering breath. There is NO reason somebody who wrote a scene as brilliant as that should have written the dreadful script to Glass. None at all.

I love the handshake at the end. Because Elijah seems to understand what it means when he offers it. It's the final step in both of their origin stories. And he knows it.

I can complain about the franchise ultimately turning unsatisfying (and inexplicably tying itself to the freaky horror film "Split"). But this movie itself is solid as hell. I wanted and deserved a better follow-up (we all did) but the truth is this movie is excellent. Also probably would have been remembered even better if it were stand-alone, and I didn't have to remind myself that Shyamalan was dumb enough to have David drown in a puddle of water decades later. Still pissed about that. Unbreakable is great though. ****1/2.