Dog’s Movie House: “Unhinged” elevated by Russell Crowe’s Committed Performance!

Pistorious stars as Rachel and she’s having a humdinger of a bad day even before she runs afoul of Crowe’s antagonist. She’s lost her best client, she’s stuck in traffic and she’s going through a contentious divorce. While on her way to drop her kid off at school a seemingly minor incident involving Rachel honking her horn at Crowe (who’s simply loitering at a green light at the time) provides the catalyst for a cat-and-mouse thriller in which Crowe’s character methodically and violently dispatches everyone Rachel holds near and dear to her in the hopes of “teaching her a lesson.”

These types of films are popular because the audience gets to experience the eventual dispatch of the nasty villain by a sympathetic figure. In “Unhinged” the script doesn’t give the characters much in the way of depth, so it’s up to the actors to give their thinly written characters more depth. Fortunately the trio of lead actors is mostly up to the task. Pistorious is fairly convincing as the mother in peril (especially during the initial encounter with Crowe in which her stressed-out state makes her ignorant of the fact that she’s dealing with a first-class whack-job. Also good is Gabriel Bateman as Rachel’s son Andy, a smart kid who recognizes the danger his mother does not.

The MVP of course is Crowe. Despite the extra poundage, Crowe’s character is never less than menacing. He looks like the human version of a grizzly bear and acts as such. With a slight southern drawl and a very convincing crazy countenance, Crowe is a potentially terrific villain stuck in a movie that doesn’t really live up to his talents.

I think the primary problem with “Unhinged” is that director Derrick Borte and screenwriter Carl Ellsworth seem to be trying to make a movie that’s more metaphor than straight story. Crowe’s character is simply listed in the credits as “The Man.” He’s seems to be constructed more as a symbol of the simmering hatred consuming the human race. This is demonstrated by the title sequence of the film in which the filmmakers give us a montage of various road rage incidents and statistics on low police recruitment numbers. The police thing serves a couple of purposes: one it creates a palpable sense of dread the the cops aren’t going to be there for the main characters. The second purpose is to preemptively (and perhaps lazily) not have to deal with the fact that this is the type of film where the cops never show up on time. (Although they do maintain a presence here, albeit a bit late for most of the picture.)

All and all, “Unhinged” is a dutiful thriller backed by some good performances, making it an entertaining but flawed film hampered by weak characters and an ambitious yet flawed message. A good streaming choice, but I don’t know whether or not it’s worth heading out to the theaters for. 3 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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