M. Night Shyamalan
Unbreakable

The cinema of M. Night Shyamalan has always been somewhat divisive: among critics, audiences, box offices, and anyone who approaches his films with even a hint of a critical spirit. Because his stories undoubtedly fascinate, captivate, and, in a certain sense, never leave anyone indifferent. Personally, I believe that a director who has reached this point can consider himself satisfied... it is every author's dream to see his fantasies reproduced on screen and to make those fantasies the subject of endless words and discussions. The more a director has imagination, the more his style is personal and unique, the more his works will be recognized and recognizable; it's like having a magic formula in your hands. Eleven years after its release, seen today, it's clear from a mile away that Unbreakable is a Shyamalan film because the formula has been respected here as well.

There are two/three basic elements in his films that are never missing.

The first is fear, or rather what makes him afraid, which, upon reflection, is somewhat the representation of what is unknown, what threateningly always lingers in the mind of every child... the second is precisely what could be described as the "childlike" element/factor. Because each of his films (or almost) is draped in a fairy-tale cloak. Who, as a child, has never been afraid of ghosts (The Sixth Sense) or aliens (Signs) or terrible monsters in the woods (The Village) or creatures emerging from dark waters (Lady in the Water), and who, once grown up, has never at least for a moment tried to exorcise those fears by telling themselves that they were now grown up and just needed to stop thinking about them...? Shyamalan evidently still believes in those fears, and his goal is to bring us back to that age when dispelling them was impossible. In this, the director succeeds well and seems to want to tell us... "see, they weren't just childish fears... I haven't overcome them. Why should you overcome them?".

And moreover, he has understood that the most terrifying thing of all is anticipation. Not knowing, letting terrible things roll off you without understanding why but knowing there is an explanation for everything and, the longer that explanation takes to arrive, the more terrible it is; like a child terrified under the covers who can't sleep and waits for the dawn light to enter the room to feel safer. Let's say that if all Shyamalan's films were about two hours long, an hour and three-quarters would be the terrified child under the covers, and the final quarter of an hour (in which everything is usually revealed) would be the dawn forcefully entering the dark room to give us comfort. In each of his works, there is a "surprise" ending, also because, come on now, we're no longer children, and that morning dawn to give us relief has to really be special... otherwise, it's a dawn like we see every day.

Even in Unbreakable there is all this: there is the discomfort of a man who has to understand why he is the only survivor of a train disaster, and there is a character who seems to have the explanation. There is the childlike or rather comic-book vision (not by chance) of a difficult and complex topic: the search for a nemesis. Every child should ask themselves, reading a comic or watching a cartoon: "Why does my favorite superhero always have evil enemies who seem made just for him?... and why are these enemies so bad... what are they really looking for?". But in reality, nobody asks that anymore, imagination is scarce, everything has become comfortable, and taking a stance is the easiest thing there is.

In reality, if opposites did not exist, nothing would make sense. Good men are good because there are bad men and vice versa; where there is good, there is evil, where there is strength, there is weakness, and if there ever was an indestructible and heroic man, he would only be there because, somewhere in the world, there is an evil man looking for him maybe just to give a sense to his unbearable existence.

Unbreakable is undoubtedly an intelligent film just like its author. Certainly a step below his previous work (The Sixth Sense), but more intriguing and successful than others that followed.