Taking advantage of being classified as rural Victoria, I snuck in some new movies just before the cinemas shut down again state-wide for tighter COVID lockdowns. Will this horrible year ever end? Thankfully, most of Australia is coping very well, and has reopened; it’s just our tiny triangle at the bottom of the mainland that’s letting the team down. In any case, last Sunday, with my mask on, I got to see Unhinged, along with another movie I will drop a review for later in the week. Directed by Derrick Borte, Unhinged is road-raging Russell Crowe taking his troubles out on a fellow commuter.
Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is late to meet a client and drop her son at school, so she’s a little testy when the car in front of her fails to go as the signal turns green. Stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the offending car pulls up next to her. The driver, known to us as The Man (Russell Crowe), offers an apology for his absent-mindedness at the last intersection, and expects an apology in return for Rachel honking him loudly instead of providing a polite curtesy tap. Rachel insists she has done nothing wrong; if the light is green, the car in front should be paying attention to the road and go. This does not sit well with The Man, and he assures her she is about to have the worst day of her life – Rachel quickly realises it wasn’t wise to piss off this guy, and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
Unhinged has lifted the opening credits setup straight from The Purge, displaying what seems like CCTV and dashcam footage of real violence, all attributed to road rage. I settled in for a lesson in road etiquette, and an extreme action-packed example of why you should be respectful on the roads, because you never know what you could be inviting into your life. I really think the movie should have started in traffic, with Rachel and her son, Kyle (Gabriel Bateman), in the car. I didn’t need the lead-in, showing us that Rachel woke up on the couch, and it’s time for her kid brother to start chipping in some rent. Deborah (Anne Leighton) likes to cut coupons out of the paper; whoopty-do! The opening ten minutes dampened my buzz; like being in the mood for sex, but then the foreplay’s boring – tease me, tantalise me, movie, but keep it in the pocket of what the overall content is all about. I guess the movie wanted to introduce us to Rachel’s brother so we’d know who he is when we have to deal with him later, but I think it would have been fine if we just met Fred (Austin P. McKenzie) and Deborah when The Man does – The Man has Rachel’s information, and he can use it to go anywhere, so it’s in the realm of possibilities that he could go places we and she haven’t even considered yet, at that moment. We get a clear enough picture of who Rachel is in the car, through her conversations with Kyle, and the mobile phone going off a couple of times; that’s plenty, and as road rage incidents anyway, it’s both parties who don’t know who is on the other side, so let’s all learn together. Our time in Rachel’s house also saw us get relayed a little news with background on who The Man is as well, since the police are already looking for him – I didn’t need that either; his initial setup at his ex-wife’s house was certainly powerful enough to indicate what kind’ve monster we’re in for later on the highway. Like a dorsal fin in the water, that’s enough to expect a shark attack; I don’t need the shark’s backstory.
Russell Crowe plays The Man as the epitome of unadulterated rage; he feels he has nothing left to live for and looks forward to going out by a spray of police bullets if it means teaching this rude honker a lesson in courtesy. I’m sure I saw an interview where Russell Crowe said he was excited to put on weight in preparation for his part in The Nice Guys; that’s where Crowe must’ve found out that food is delicious because he gains the weight of a fat man and a whole other not-so-nice guy here for Unhinged. I’m really glad the movie didn’t try to make us sympathise with The Man; when you see an A-lister take on a villain role it’s always an angle to be played, but when you see the maniacal actions this guy takes, there’s really no redeeming him. There’s a joke somewhere about Eddie Maguire, President of the Collingwood Football Club, getting in trouble for constantly putting his foot in his mouth with the things he says, while the co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs is happy simulating punching women and strangling children; ah, but I don’t know, it’s all fun. I do appreciate Crowe’s characterisation of this guy – the heavy breathing and slow way his mouth moves, like his words are trying to keep up with his brain. The Man blames the world for his problems, but hasn’t done much to look after his personal health. Yes, the news report suggests The Man suffered a brain injury at work, and can get angry if he strays from his medication, but even factoring in that extra information I didn’t need, the guy’s still a dick.
Despite the jarring opening, Unhinged does provide the carnage I sought. The deaths are simple but fucking brutal. When we first see a guy get hit by a car, we see all of it, which is every indication of the further ruthlessness the movie has in store. I guess this unbridled destruction is part of what I was missing from The Invisible Man, but there’s no need to go over that again… On the flip side, the camera shakes too much and the action can be hard to follow. As far as worthy adversaries go, I don’t think Rachel assesses the situation quick enough to be memorable either – she’s no Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street; a poster girl of a good heroine for me. Unhinged has the misfortune of coming after I just saw Duel for the first time, a movie that carries a similar plot, with a truck hellbent on revenge. And I think of The Man as if Michael Douglas never got out of the car in Falling Down, and took his frustration out on the other commuters on the road instead; these two rage-animals would make a good crossover idea actually. Unhinged has a fantastically easy premise, and some juicy moments, but overall, it is only okay.
3.0.
Adam N
Replace the news report on the tv at the start with a news report on the radio in the car on the freeway (maybe even throw in a traffic report too, that kind of makes sense, seems like a missed opportunity).
Give us like 30 seconds of the brother and his missus before “The Man” rocks up, maybe she goes to cut up the coupons and can’t find the scissors, then there’s a brief conversation about money & rent, job, sister, etc.
Those 2 things would be enough to replace the setup scenes in the house. And as much as “The Man” doesn’t have a likeable angle, his message gets through to Rachael with the final moment of the movie, influencing her actions… 😏
Today Junior!
I was thinking the news report could come into it, on the radio, about half way through.
Everything else you say is super spot on 🙂