Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 19-February-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Unbreakable (2000)

M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" tells the story of how an unassuming security guard named David Dunn (Bruce Willis) walks unharmed from a fatal train wreck and gradually discovers the significance of his survival. As the movie begins, he and his wife (Robin Wright Penn) are considering separation while their son (Spencer Treat Clark) flounders in confusion and longing. David's near-death experience signals a chance for the family to start again, and news coverage of the event brings him to the attention of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a dealer of rare comic books whose bones are unusually shatter-prone due to a genetic disease. Elijah (i.e., the prophet) imposes himself upon the Dunns to outline a fantastic theory: that just as he himself was formed to be breakable, David was formed to be unbreakable; and, as comics instruct, an unbreakable man is destined to be a hero.

I was one of the few moviegoers who thought Shyamalan's 1999 hit "The Sixth Sense" had a lot of problems (I hated it), and the follow-up isn't without its share of holes, improbabilities, and loose ends. But the ideas behind "Unbreakable" are marvelously compelling, especially for people who gravitate toward superheroes (of which there are many, as the opening statistics about comic books attest). Like Peter Parker, David Dunn struggles to reconcile an extraordinary talent with the goals and responsibilities of an average life. But unlike Spider-Man, his abilities are subtle enough to go unnoticed for years, even by himself. His extended awakening allows Shyamalan to examine the root cause of many superhero attributes, including the inevitability of a nemesis (does goodness require evil?), the presence of a weakness (is power mitigated by humility?), and the need for a secret identity.

This latter point is central to the issue of David's marriage, as well as his future. While his wife develops into a sympathetic character with understandable wishes, she is also presented as an obstacle to the fulfillment of David's potential. Their chances for reconciliation depend upon his ability both to accept his fate and to keep it from her. Like most people who choose to put themselves in danger, he wants to protect his loved ones. But more than that, he wants to satisfy his own contradictory desires: to enjoy a stable family life on the one hand, and to follow the hero's path laid out before him on the other. Does the one entitle him to the other? Or is striving for both the real test of his strength?

"Unbreakable" offers many such questions to think about, and they atone for its faults. Elijah's belief that if there's a yin there's a yang smacks of the truth and suggests the tantalizing possibility that people like David exist, possessed of gifts which, if recognized, could change lives for the better.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.