Unhinged

Everyone have experienced some really bad days, no matter what happened. It could be a tragedy, or personal issues that causes your day to feel really bad, where you feel like you are about to explode. And i am pretty sure some of us have memories of days we wished would not exist at all. But what if you took that anger and expressed it out in public, and things get even more worse? That is exactly what happened in Joel Schumacher´s cult classic thriller Falling Down, with a brilliant acting performance from legendary actor Michael Douglas. Released in 1993, i still consider this to be the best film from director Joel Schumacher, and there are not many thriller films that manage to pull of a combination as Falling Down does. You have the story of mentally unstable character William Foster, who will do anything to come to his daughter´s birthday, no matter what he has to do to get there, and you also have the story of aging LAPD sergeant Martin ( played brilliant by legendary actor Robert Duvall ) who will do this final job and track down William. The combination of these characters, together with a really well told story, makes this film unique in the thriller category. And i have to mention that the cinematography from Andrzej Bartkowiac ( who also worked with cinematography on classic films such as Q & A with Nick Nolte ) looks really good in Falling Down. There are a lot of powerful scenes with the main character William Foster, and one of my personal favourite scenes is the breakfast meny at a fast food chain, when William want´s breakfast, and he just missed it, since they switch over to the lunch meny, something that William can not accept. Falling Down is a must own on DVD or Blu Ray, and in my opinion delivers one of the best acting performances from Michael Douglas. Earlier this year i read online about a new thriller that seemed to have some influences from Falling Down, a thriller called Unhinged with a great cast included. Since i could not see this film in theatres, i picked up this film on Blu Ray instead. Is this one of the best thrillers of 2020, or is Unhinged doomed to be forgotten ?

Tom Hunter ( Russel Crowe ), a mentally unstable man, invades the home of his ex-wife and killer her and her boyfriend as well, and finish everything by burning the house down. Rachel Flynne ( Caren Pistorious ), a newly-divorced single mother living in New Orleans, drives her 15-year-old son Kyle to school in rush hour. She is running late to work, as she honks to a pickup truck that does not go forward as the green light shows. The driver of this car turns out to be Tom, and he is in a really bad mood. Rachel is about to find out that she made a big mistake.

Since this year have been a mixed bag of movie releases in cinemas, Unhinged is actually one of the better thrillers that managed to get a cinema release. That does not mean that this film is original in any way, but what Unhinged manage to do is show that if you run into the wrong person, your life can change completely. In all honesty, you never know who is driving on the highway, and if you have bad luck you run into an insane person such as Russel Crowe´s  mentally unstable character Tom. We have to talk about Russel Crowe for a while, because this film would never work as well without his powerful performance. To see him do a very unstable mentally ill person, shows once more why he is such a professional actor, who dare to go outside of his comfort zone. To be able to capture the facial expressions, and the personality of a very disturbing personality, is very difficult. But Russel Crowe manage to pull this off in his own unique way. Actress Caren Pistorious ( who playes the character Pandora Shaw in sci fi action film Mortal Engines ) also delivers a strong performance as Rachel Flynn, who Tom have chosen to follow and make her life a living hell. One of the things that this film manage to do so well, is to show what a very disturbed mentally ill person is able to do, if he is not taken of the streets. He is like a ticking bomb, with no remorse and no respect for anyone. And this is the strength of Unhinged, that this character have a lot of screen time, and this helps this thriller become more effective. There are some disturbing scenes, especially for those who do not like realistic violence. I have not seen an effective thriller for quite some time this year, and Unhinged actually works better than i expected. Director Derrick Borte ( who some of you might remember for his film The Joneses ) may not have made a thriller that break any new grounds, but he does know how to make an effective psychological thriller. If you want to see a great thriller this Christmas, then i suggest you give Unhinged a chance. This film shows you why not to talk to strangers on the highway, because you never know if someone had a really bad day.

Rating: DDD