An interesting concept accompanied by a fairly ridiculous premise, Unbreakable never reaches the heights of some of writer, producer and director M. Night Shyamalan's earlier works, such as 'The Sixth Sense' or 'Signs'.

The story begins with Philadelphia security guard David Dunne (Bruce Willis) as the sole survivor of a catastrophic train derailment. Not only has he survived, but he has done so without a scratch upon him. This leads to a chilling scene in where Willis leaves the hospital, happy family in tow, with hundreds of the other not so fortunate passenger's family members looking on in devastation.

We soon find however that this family is not so happy, and although they are living in the same house, the senior Dunne's are barely on speaking terms and no longer share a bed.

Meanwhile, Dunne's ordeal has made headlines, which piques the interest of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a comic art collector who has an interesting theory regarding comic books and their greater role in society. He compares them to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and suggests that they are more significant than their funny paper roots might suggest. Born with a rare congenital disease which leaves his bones in a particularly frail state, Price concedes that David is indeed the subject of the film's title; unbreakable. This makes Price, ahem, breakable. It is Price's constant probing of Dunne that convinces him to overcome his disappointing existence and delve further into his abilities, and it is soon discovered that not only is he impervious to damage, but that he also possesses super-human strength, as well as a certain intuition useful for the busting up of bad guys, something akin to 'spider-senses'.

Unbreakable is basically a deconstruction of the mythology surrounding that most questionable of art-forms; comic books. Standing in for the reluctant hero is Bruce Willis, not quite sporting the chiseled jaw we are told is a common attribute of his kind. Samuel L. Jackson's full role isn't revealed until the film's final moments, where a surprise twist ending is more likely to disappoint than inspire awe as was achieved in The Sixth Sense. Robin Wright Penn and Spencer Treat Clark portray Willis' wife and son respectively, but they are uninteresting at best and annoying at worst. That's pretty much it in the way of characters, which is typical of Shyamalan's early work, in where we are thrust rather engagingly into a series of strange and intimate affairs.

Above all the film is... unusual. Direction, dialogue and editing are idiosyncratic, ensuring scenes which would otherwise have gravitas are left deflated. I'm pretty sure that Jackson's wig and costume designers have never worked in Hollywood again, he just looks plain ridiculous. Having a keen interest in the medium at the centre of the film, I was engaged but ultimately dissapointed. There was a lot of potential here, and although not wholly unsuccessful, the film fails to reach the heights hinted at in its somber early scenes. 65%