Unhinged review

[Westside Steve]

Unhinged
Solstice Studios
R                 130 min
Okay gang the theaters are open again. Kudos hit the folks at the Atlas Cinemas who have been open for a few weeks and now the mainstream movie houses are back to everyday operation. Of course, due to the nationwide covid-19 panic there are new rules in place. In my personal opinion I think some of them are non-uniform and arbitrary and some completely miss the intended point, but let me say this. The good folks that work in the theaters (or restaurants or retail stores for that matter) and management don’t make these rules they are just doing their best to make a living. 
Anyway, my first visit back to the Regal Montrose (Shout out to the staff there, the place was clean as a whistle) was to see the new Russell Crowe film UNHINGED. Like many of the new releases I’m guessing this one’s been in the can for a while waiting for a chance to hit the big screen. 
First of all, let me tell you that UNHINGED ain’t exactly high art. It also suffers from some sloppy direction and some unsatisfying loose ends. Still…
The very first thing you will notice is how much weight the once shirtless star of GLADIATOR has put on. Probably just a side effect of middle age as I doubt that he would purposely gain 70 pounds for a script like this one. Regardless my first problem is that they completely give away the plot in the very first scene. Right off the bat we know that his character, Tom Cooper, is a raging and violent lunatic. I think they could have skipped that scene, replaced it with a couple minutes of backstory, and let the audience find out gradually. But then again I didn’t get a producer credit. Here’s what happens. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is really having a bad day. She’s struggling through a divorce and this particular morning trying her best to get her whiny son to school on time meet with her divorce attorney and get to work when she gets stuck in a traffic jam. At one point a big 4 by 4 is blocking traffic at a green light and she lays on the horn as she speeds around him.
Minutes later the truck pulls up on her right and stops traffic and the driver, Cooper, begins to reprimand her. At first, he seems rational just asking for an apology for what he felt was unnecessarily rude gesture. Well she has just been fired because she’s going to miss her appointment, lost her job  and the kid is going to be late for school. She’s freaking out and in no mood for diplomacy and basically tells the guy to f off. This is a good scene for Crowe as his character, who could have been appeased with a simple apology, eventually just snaps. Unfortunately thanks to the opening scene we already know he’s nuts. The rest of the flick is a deadly game of cat and mouse as Rachel frantically tries to escape the psycho killer. There are actually a lot of twists and turns as the story unfolds but I won’t tell you what they are because that will spoil the fun. And yes, despite all of its flaws unhinged never slow down never got boring and never lets up on the edge of the seat suspense. Also every time you think Cooper can’t get any more dangerous… Well you get the idea.
If you see the film I think you’ll know what I mean by loose ends but even though they weren’t a deal-breaker for me I think if they had tied those up I’d be willing to give this thriller an A-, but still just for the suspense and entertainment value and the fact that I was sitting in a movie theater with popcorn it’s still worth the trip.
B-
WSS