Many know Angelina Jolie as an A list movie star but this go around she’s switching roles and getting behind the camera. Jolie has been vocal with her desire to film the much acclaimed and greatly loved Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken”. A Best Selling biography about the amazing true story of Louis Zamperini.
Unbroken follows and documents World War II hero Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, spent 47 days drifting on a raft, and then survived more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war in several brutal Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.
Sounds amazing right? The irony is while the movie passes as acceptable, it hardly gives this true story the craft and care it deserves. I’m personally puzzled why a story this great came up so short as a film. The material is indisputably dramatic but it hasn’t been shaped or shot with any dynamism. It just seems bland and incapable of telling Louis Zamperini’s story with clarity.
Unbroken isn’t all bad though, it’s handsome to say the least. It’s bright and colorful when it needs to be and grim and dim when times are rough. No doubt this is a credit to Cinematographer Roger Deakins. More so than Jolie, Deakins is able to make us feel much more involved on visuals alone. The bleakness of Louis Zamperini’s situation is complimented nicely by the sterile and deserted environments Deakins achieves through his lens. He always makes us a feel a part of the movie no matter which environment we get plopped into.
More of the good in Unbroken parallels with what makes America truly great. The unwillingness to surrender in peril times, the tenacity of survival and most importantly the “if you can take it, you can make it” attitude. All these are great themes and should play for a great movie considering the source material. Unfortunately the film comes up short to deliver an engaging narrative. Yes, Zamperini’s story is fantastic, empowering and inspirational. But the film does it little justice.
It’s not that Unbroken is a bad movie, far from it. But frustration settles in and when you realize the potential of what this film could’ve been. Maybe in the hands of a more experienced filmmaker, I’m not sure. I would still recommend seeing Unbroken if for no other reason than to experience Louie Zamperini’s story. An inspiring, courageous and altogether triumphant true story about a man who overcame impossible odds.
Unbroken ultimately leaves you with an incomplete feeling. Jolie’s direction is safe and blockbustery, but no one involved in this production seemed to crack the strong-willed Zamperini, making for a confused, unsteady life-affirming biopic.
6/10
*ddileo 