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Movies & TV

Review: Unbroken

UNBROKEN (Angelina Jolie). 137 minutes. Opens December 25. Rating: NN


To director Angelina Jolie‘s credit, she doesn’t shy away from tough material. Her previous feature, In The Land Of Blood And Honey, unfolds in a prison camp during the Bosnian war. Her new feature, Unbroken, tells the story of how Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) survived a Japanese prison camp during World War II.

But only a sadist could like it.

The film starts with an effective sequence where U.S. army pilots, including Zamperini, are locked in an all-out air war with the Japanese. Later, he and two of his mates are shot down and lost at sea.

A full half-hour is spent with these poor starving guys – though we’re blessed with brief flashbacks recalling Zamperini’s athletic aspirations. That’s a forshpeis for the main course: over an hour of unremitting brutality by Japanese commander Watanabe (Takamasa Ishihara) against our man Louis after the Japanese pick him up and make him a P.O.W. 

What’s the point here beyond measuring Zamperini’s endurance? The film is based on a true story, so there’s no real tension. Zamperini is separated from his army buddy Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) before he’s incarcerated, so there are no real relationships either. Elements of his later life related to his P.O.W. experience have huge dramatic potential, but Jolie and her team of screenwriters, including the Coen brothers, don’t go there. 

Ishihara does give a fascinating and raw performance as the monstrous Watanabe, but it’s not enough to justify Jolie’s obsession with his repulsive violence.

Not into brutality? View Unbroken at your peril.

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