Unhinged

Movies are starting to come back, and I am so happy. Nothing beats seeing a movie on a big screen with some “buttery” popcorn and reclining seats. Theaters are also doing a good job of following safety protocols. So all the pieces are in place for a wonderful movie immersion experience…except where are all the movies? Except for “Tenent,” the big studios are still holding back the good ones, hoping to get better box offices with late year releases. It is in this kind of an atmosphere that a movie like “Unhinged” even gets a chance to be noticed. “Unhinged” is a bad movie that stars a good actor. Russell Crowe plays a man who has been beaten down by life and a messy divorce that has turned him into a psychopath. He does that quite well. When the movie opens, we watch him beat in a suburban house door, murder the couple inside, torch the house and impassively watch as it explodes in flames. Only later do we find out that this was his ex-wife and her new husband. In the meantime, our protagonist Rachel, played by Caren Pistorious, is not having a good day. Late for an appointment because of traffic, she gets frustrated with a man who is slow to move when the light turns green and honks her horn at him. Of course, we know who it is, even if we hadn’t already recognized his massive pickup truck. This small act has huge consequences. The rest of the movie revolves around the Man’s vendetta against Rachel, her family, and friends as he becomes more and more unhinged. As Rachel is chased by this unglued man, she makes the most ridiculous decisions, most of which do not involve going to the police for help and result in a number of people dying gruesomely. Like all good psychos and their chosen implements of destruction; the Man is mostly unchallenged, his truck nearly indestructible and he is virtually impervious to crashes and physical injury; until the last 20 minutes or so. He unerringly finds Rachel, her son and family; though some of this is because Rachel, dopey throughout, leaves her no password protected cell phone in her unlocked car to be stolen while she shops at a gas station convenience store. The end of the movie was totally ludicrous. In normal non-COVID times, this movie would be forgotten among the big blockbusters like “Wonder Woman” or the next James Bond movie. Still, a return to the movie theater experience has to start somewhere! So even though it is a subpar movie, I don’t regret watching it, and can’t wait for our next big screen adventure!!