I must say, there was something good about being able to go back to the cinema and watch a film on the big screen again. Perhaps, well I hope so, this is the beginning of normality. Although there is a large queue of summer blockbusters waiting to be released I had the opportunity to see Unhinged.
Director Derick Borte (The Joneses), brings us an on-edge violent thriller starring Russell Crowe who plays a psychopathic, emasculated man on a rampant road rage while Caren Pistorious, plays a single mum Rachel who is having a bad morning. She’s late, she’s undergoing a difficult divorce, and she’s stuck in traffic when she gets into a road-rage incident with the wrong man (Crowe).
Like all thrillers, the beginnings can be slow, but make no mistake, Unhinged is a slick, provocative and extremely violent film; with most of the action taking place from the interior of cars on the freeways, showing the occasional smash ’em up road rage terror. But it also includes bonus wreckage in diners, family living rooms and beyond; Crowe’s hulking figure fills whatever space he’s in, literally and figuratively. He gets gleefully deranged lines such as, “Your little brother is sitting in a puddle of lighter fluid and his own piss” yet delivered in a glum and fearless manner.
Although Unhinged isn’t a game-changer in the thriller genre, it’s filmed with a grey filter of foreboding, but it is a compelling story nonetheless. It taps deep into a further understanding of the problems of rage and mental health within Western society, asking viewers direct questions about their own form of ‘road rage’. This is certainly not a film for first-time drivers to go watch with their parents – that’s for sure!
3 Stars.
Image Credit: The MovieDB.
