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Last year's Sixth Sense was one of those rare films that captured both the critical and popular imagination. With standout performances from Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment and a story that was both elegantly paced and thoroughly involving, it was Hollywood filmmaking at its best. M. Night Shyamalan's follow-up effort, Unbreakable, is a movie that almost demands comparisons to his debut flick, and not all of them are favorable.

The similarities between the two films are immediate and obvious. Both star Bruce Willis as a kind-hearted but somewhat troubled and confused man trying to find his place in the world. Both are structured around the supernatural and unexplainable: The Sixth Sense dealt with ghosts and the afterlife, Unbreakable focuses on Willis as he tries to understand why he was the only survivor of a horrific train crash. Both rely on heavy doses of portent and atmosphere. Finally, both trust their audiences to be patient as the story slowly and mysteriously unfolds.

Slowly is the operative word. The movie opens in 1961 in a Philadelphia department store. Shot in a mirror's reflection (a running theme in the film), the scene relates the birth of a baby who's born with broken legs and arms. Cut to the present where David Dunn (Willis) is on a train heading home. A pretty young woman sits down beside him. He surreptitiously removes his wedding ring and attempts to flirt with her, with embarrassing results. That scene ends, after several minutes, as the train begins to shake violently. We cut again to Dunn in a hospital bed, where we learn he's the only one to survive the train accident, and without a scratch. Another long scene follows where we're introduced to a young black boy who refuses to go outside for fear of breaking another bone.

Each of these scenes is thick with atmosphere and thin on plot development. We're 20-25 minutes into the movie, and all we know is that Bruce Willis has survived a train accident, that his marriage is on the rocks, and there's some strange African-American boy whose bones are so brittle he has the nickname of Mr. Glass.

On the other hand, Unbreakable uses its subdued lighting, subtle music, and pregnant pauses to create a rich and foreboding ambience. The movie gives little clue of what's going on, but it all seems frighteningly important. The conflict, when it finally is revealed, centers on Dunn's true nature. Elijah Price (aka Mr. Glass)--played by Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) with a fabulous skewed afro and long, purple-tinged trench coat--is convinced that Dunn is some sort of indestructible comic-book hero. David is initially skeptical, but things start tilting that way as the movie goes on. Caught up in the mix are Dunn's wife Audrey (Robin Wright Penn, She's So Lovely) and his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark, Arlington Road). The latter, who seems to be channeling the character if not the essence of Haley Joel Osment, is convinced that Price is right, which leads to an overwrought scene where  Joseph threatens to shoot his father to prove the latter's superhero powers. The final act of the movie seems to be lifted straight out of The Sixth Sense. There's a moment strikingly similar in Unbreakable to the scene in Sense when Osment goes into the little girl's house and finds the videotape. There's also the cathartic emotional release between Dunn and his family. And, yes, there's a trick ending that brings everything into focus.

So, if Unbreakable has so many things in common with The Sixth Sense, it must be just as good, right? Unfortunately not. While Shyamalan directs with an even stronger sense of control--his use of tilted camera shots, wide-angle lenses, and brooding atmosphere is fantastic--he's lost the emotional element that undergirded his debut film.

What made The Sixth Sense so powerful was the incredible relationship that Willis's character had with Osment's. We in the audience weren't always sure what was going on, but we were willing to follow along just because we cared so much about those two. And when the narrative came together, all of our patience was rewarded ten-fold. Unbreakable doesn't have anything like that. Yes, Dunn and his wife are struggling to keep their marriage together and he's trying to be a father to his son, but the connections are tepid at best. Furthermore, the relationship between Dunn and Price is so ambiguous and distant that we're never sure what to make of it, which makes the fancy conclusion seem more like a gimmick than a satisfying resolution.

Nonetheless, Unbreakable is still a well-crafted, strongly-acted film. Samuel L. Jackson is particularly good as the comic-book collector who sees the world as one big battle between good and evil. The movie also has interesting things to say about the relationship of cinematic storytelling and comic book drawings. If Unbreakable didn't make so many comparisons to its predecessor, it wouldn't have such big shoes to fill. 

J. Robert Parks 11/20/2000