Unbreakable

Jean and I went to see this movie today. I took a long lunch and will work late to cover the gap. This is the sort of movie about which a lot of reviews get written: big-name actors, writer/director with a reputation, genuinely good story. So I won't write a full-fledged review of it. What follows are my brief comments, and they are spoilers.

• I agree with the reviewers who have said this is not as good as Sixth Sense. It is nevertheless a good movie, if you like the sort of movie it is (with apologies to Mr. Lincoln "qbullet.smiley").
  
• The approach to the notion of a superhero, or at least epic hero, is dead-on. In our society, our real society, a man in spandex pants, who fought crime, would quickly be weighed down with lawsuits, arrested, or institutionalized. Such a gift would have to be used in a circumspect manner, no matter how you'd like to use it.
  
• His heightened intuition wouldn't really let him prevent crime, unless he decided to become a vigilante who was really no better than the evils he fought. He must "see" things, and let them go, choosing only those incidents where he can track down a culprit in the act. This will be frustrating.
  
• The absolute best scene in the movie is when he is at the breakfast table with his son, and quietly shows him the newspaper, reporting the rescue of two children he is responsible for. The subtle looks, the flood of emotion in his son, are immensely well done, and satisfyingly understated.
  
• The second-best scene was the weightlifting scene.
  
• The Dragnet-style where-are-they-now subtitles at the end of the movie were one of the more annoying flaws.
  

All told, anybody who has read a lot of comics, but has an introspective mind, will appreciate this moody postmodern take on the superhero.