Unbeatable? No, but still worth a look

Having watched Manoj Night Shyamalan's "The sixth sense", I had very high hopes for his next film, "Unbreakable".

But I was disappointed. Please note that the movie is not bad per se, it's just that I went in with very high hopes, and "Unbreakable" is just not as good as "The sixth sense". It is still a pretty good movie though.

The camera work is still as stunning as ever. I was impressed by the opening shot. They show David (Bruce Willis) sitting in a train. The camera is placed on the seat in front of him, and David is shown from in between two seats. The camera slowly pans from one end of the seat to the other, shifting along with David. Very nicely done indeed. The deft camera work is evident throughout the film, with certain scenes shown through mirror reflections, some with the camera placed high above in unusual but visually stunning positions. There are also many close ups of the characters, the camera slowly moving in until you see every wart and mole. Arresting shooting. Or maybe it's just the novelty factor that captured me. ;-)

Okay, now the story. Theres David Dunne (Bruce Willis). He is our "unbreakable" man. A man who has never been ill throughout his life, not even a single cough and cold. A man who never even gets physically injured. He's involved in a train accident that leaves everyone dead; except him. A serious car crash, from which he walks away without even a single scratch. Just a curious, random freak incident, or the will of God?

On the other end of the spectrum we have Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson). A bitter man with brittle bones. Suffering from a genetic deformity, that makes his bones very weak. Even the slightest push or fall breaks them. Unable to live a normal life, he turns, as a child, towards comic books for solace. This obsession with comics leads on into adulthood, and hes now a collector and dealer in old comics and art work.

The film revolves around the mysterious interaction between these two men. Elijah has been searching for an "unbreakable" man for a long time, until he meets the object of his search in David. But why this search? Why this obsession? What does he need David for? You can almost feel the tension building up. The suspense and intrigue factor goes up and up, until it culminates in a strange but somewhat satisfying climax.

The acting is top notch. Samuel L. Jackson carries off his role with perfection (as he does in almost every role that he plays). An intense and intellectually arrogant man, you find it very tough indeed to like him. Bruce Willis is cast in a role in which he has to exercise his face muscles instead of his biceps, something that doesn't happen very often to him. But he proves his mettle on this count as well. Nice acting by both the main characters. The little boy (Spencer Treat Clark) also puts in a solid performance.

Great camera work, good acting. But neither is enough to camouflage a slightly weak story line. The flaw is that its a bit unbelievable, especially the end. The end sort of lets the movie down. The entire movie keeps on building up towards the end, and maybe that raises expectations a bit too high. At least, that's how I viewed it. High hopes, only to have them come soaring down.

BUT IT'S MAYBE STILL WORTH WATCHING ONCE