It’s a rarity to see a film director tackle a genre movie with intelligence these days, but that’s what M Night Shyalaman has been doing for the past couple of years. Last year, Shyalaman directed The Sixth Sense, a supernatural thriller which surprised everyone as it went to become one of the top grossing films of all time as well as an Oscar Best Film contender. I certainly didn’t expect The Sixth Sense to turn into the juggernaut it became. Nowadays, the phrase “I see dead people” is forever imprinted in the memories of moviegoers as a result. Shyamalan’s back hot on the wheels of The Sixth Sense with Unbreakable, also starring Bruce Willis, another sleeper film involving supernatural elements. And I happen to think it’s one of the best films of the year.

      Unbreakable is the story of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who’s fate as the sole survivor of a horrendous train wreck puts him in the path of an unconceivable realization. Dunn captures the attention of Elijah Price, played with controlled intensity by the great Samuel L Jackson, a man “they call Mr. Glass” because of a rare generic disorder in which his bones are so brittle, they break constantly after normal everyday mishaps. Price has grown up to become a comic book connoisseur and owns his own art gallery in Philadelphia. When Dunn receives a card from Price’s gallery, the men meet and begin to discuss the possibilities behind David’s accident. At first, David suspect Elijah as a con man, a crazy, as both…but soon David himself starts to wonder if Elijah might just be right…wonder if he is indeed…unbreakable.

     I won’t reveal much else about the plot since Shyalaman’s narrative depends on must-keep-secret plot twists. Shyalaman wrote Unbreakable immediately after The Sixth Sense and credit must be given to his writing abilities: the movie doesn’t feel like a rush job. Neither are the characters in Unbreakable two-dimensional big-Hollywood-blockbuster cardboard cutouts. Willis plays David Dunn as a man beaten down by his self-doubt, a man who’s lived an overcautious life and now wakes up every morning with a sense of unnamed sadness. Dunn’s family is on reluctant poor shape--he’s estranged from his longtime wife Audrey (Robin Wright-Penn) for reasons not quite clear yet his son Joseph adores him and is keeping the cooling marriage together. On the other side, Elijah Price is plagued with the legacy of a disease which has left him partially crippled and an outcast. He grows up to focus on the philosophies of comic book art and storytelling and there’s something else behind his façade…bitterness…anger perhaps. Shyalaman waits to the film’s very end to drop the bomb, a plot twist which shatters the audiences convention.

     Shyalaman has constructed a great film. No MTV-style editing here: Unbreakable is a very subtle film that is tightly edited and thoroughly composed--the many peculiar camera angles shown throught the film show Shyalaman’s innate cinematic skills. There’s one shot towards the end done from behind a set of windblown curtains that’s just fantastic in terms of composition and cinematic storytelling--Shyalaman knows how to direct. I was very pleased to see such a tightly controlled film. Much credit for the look of the film goes to cinematographer Eduardo Serra.

     My only qualm with the film is that it doesn’t quite tie up completely its ideas about comic books. Shyamalan attempts to make deep statements about comic book art and storytelling but he doesn’t quite finish. I was hoping to end this review by announcing that Shyalaman has said that Unbreakable was to be the first in a trilogy, but this isn’t the case. In a recent interview, he’s announced that he won’t be the type of director known for sequels so it would be to another director to continue the story told in Unbreakable. Regardless, for its subtlety, intelligence and great execution, Unbreakable is one of 2000’s best films.