There was an underutilized shade of blue on Bruce Willis’s emotional color wheel. Is it easier, at this particular moment, to appreciate that forlorn side of his work? AADowd writes
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Focus Features, Universal Studios, Moviestore/Shutterstock and Buena Vista Pictures “Tell me a story about why you’re sad,” young Cole Sear implores his therapist, Malcom Crowe , in the most famous scene from The Sixth Sense. Cole sees dead people; it’s the big secret he’ll reveal to Malcolm just a moment later, via a much more iconic line of dialogue. But that’s not all he sees.
That charisma was one of the most reliable draws of the ’90s and 2000s blockbuster machine. In one respect, Willis was an old-school movie star, dependable in his trademarks: His squarish mug and gleaming brow on a poster all but guaranteed a certain wryness, a willingness to puncture the seriousness of any situation with flippant swagger.
Still, there’s more to the performance than just a productive undercutting of Die Hard heroics. Willis is often achingly exposed in the part. One of the greatest scenes in his whole filmography is the moment, maybe halfway through 12 Monkeys, when Cole hears music on the 20th-century car radio and just about melts, his desperation giving way to tragically fleeting joy.
In Unbreakable, Willis goes downright depressive to convey Dunn’s alienation and discontent. All the film’s superhero-origin-story mythmaking is a costume pulled over a rather terrific midlife crisis drama; when people talk about Shyamalan as a spiritual filmmaker, they’re getting at how honestly he’s interested in the sickness of the soul — an illness that Willis practically exudes from his pores in every majestically moody minute of Unbreakable.
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