Unbreakable is a solid bit of entertainment. A train wreck occurs in which security guard David Dunn is not only the sole survivor, but literally escapes without so much as a scratch. While still in the throes of survivor guilt and in the midst of a failing marriage Dunn is approached by a mysterious man, who has a remarkable, in fact, almost absurd explanation as to how Dunn survived. But life has a way of making the absurd reality and soon David Dunn has to face some unbreakable truths about his life.

I suspect that Unbreakable is going to be one of those movies that people either really love or really hate. I fall into the first category and think that Unbreakable is one of the best, and certainly most unusual, films out this year. There are two things people should know up front about this film the first being that this is not the same sort of movie as The Sixth Sense. There are similarities in style, but the two films are completely different enterprises. Second, Unbreakable is a very slow paced film and anyone expecting to find Bruce Willis doing another Diehard is going to be disappointed. Instead of using lots of flashy special effects and choreographed fight scenes M. Night Shyamalan gradually builds a flawless, and somewhat disturbing, story heartbeat by heartbeat. The acting was wonderful, to be expected when you have stars of the quality of Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, as was the dark and slightly off-key camera work. One thing that extremely impressed me was the manner in which Shyamalan weaves the story of Dunn's failing marriage into Unbreakable so that it stood as a separate story in and of itself. The two stories tend to touch in places in ways that make each other stronger, but at the same time each story was interesting enough to stand on its own. The romantic story evokes a range of emotions from bleak sadness to gentle sweetness as Dunn and his wife try to save a marriage that they once believed was unbreakable.

The controversial ending is actually in two parts one of which, in retrospect, should have been obvious shortly into the film and the other is how the situation would probably play out in the more prosaic real world. If nothing else, for me anyway, knowing there was suppose to be an unusual, and unsettling, end to the film kept me in more suspense during the film then I might have otherwise felt so this alone made the ending a good thing.

If you enjoy something different break down and see Unbreakable.

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