by Charles Kirkland Jr.
Road rage is taken to a ridiculous new level as Russell Crowe plays a man out to prove how bad a day can be in Unhinged.
One morning, the always-late, Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is rushing to taker her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) to school. During the ride, she confesses to a client that she is going to be late for their meeting due to the terrible traffic in which she is stuck. Of course, the incensed client fires her. Frustrated and exasperated, Rachel decides to take side streets and get out of the highway logjam. At the light at the bottom of the off-ramp, a man (Russell Crowe) sits at the light after it has turned green. Rachel honks her horn as she drives around him and gives him the finger as she passes. When the man catches up with her at the next light, he asks for an apology. Rachel dismisses him and denies the request stating that she is having a really bad day. Little does she know that she is dealing with a man who has nothing left to lose and everything to prove.
Unhinged is an action thriller starring Crowe, Pistorius, and Bateman with Jimmi Simpson. It is written by Carl Ellsworth (Disturbia, Last House on the Left) and directed by relative newcomer Derrick Borte (American Dreamer, The Joneses).
From the opening scenes of this movie, the audience knows almost exactly where it is going. Borte uses an opening title sequence that focuses on road rage and the dangers thereof with news clips from various sources showing the violent outbreak of incidents. This makes Unhinged a cautionary thriller because who hasn’t honked at someone who is holding up traffic at a stoplight? In fact, the teaser line for the movie is “He can happen to anyone.” In that truth lies the movie’s actual power.
The casting of the movie is great. Academy Award winner, Russell Crowe is always intense but in this film, he uses that intensity to quietly convey his passive-aggressive anger until he explodes in true violence. The movie is so violent that it borders on a horror movie with Crowe’s character (his name is never mentioned) resembling the unstoppable Jason Voorhees behind a steering wheel. Crowe is at his best when he is scowling and at his worst when he is using his terrible southern drawl but he is a force to be reckoned with from the very beginning to the movie’s conclusion.
Caren Pistorius (Mortal Engines, The Light Between Oceans) may have turned in her best performance as the mouse to Crowe’s cat in this film. She is the perfect mix of cluelessness and frailty that is forged into a powerful maternal force through the trials of fire forced upon her.
Don’t get it confused though. This movie is not high art nor does it intend to be. It has its pluses and minuses. For instance, while to an extent the teaser line is true, the lengths to which this film goes is a little beyond reality. When pressed for an apology by Crowe’s character, Rachel, played well by Pistorius, head-scratchingly refuses…adamantly! While the audience knows about this guy, even her Rachel’s son, Kyle, is smart enough to realize that this crazy man is not to be messed with and pleads with her to apologize. Of course, she doesn’t apologize because then there would have been no movie.
Rated R for strong violent content, and language throughout, Unhinged is a compelling thrill-ride with strong elements of horror that will make a person contemplate life the next time they want to rudely honk a horn. Anytime you can make leave an audience with a tangible emotion or thought process, the movie is a success despite how corny and predictable it is. Sometimes, the execution is the thing. To steal a quote, “Are you not entertained?” Yes, Russell. Yes, we are.
Grade: B-