Review: Unhinged

Ugh….no. There’s so much wrong with this movie. Okay, let’s start.

Russell Crowe plays “Man”. Our intro to him is him, sitting in his car, breathing heavy and eating prescription painkillers (I assume) like they’re candy. He gets out of the vehicle (we aren’t meant to be know what he’s driving ie: car, truck, SUV), and brutally murders two people and blows their house up. Aside from the weird heavy/laboured breathing it works as a menacing opening.

Carren Pistorius plays Rachel, who we learn at the start of the film is a stressed out single mom, recently divorced, and late for everything always. Including dropping her youngest boy of at school on time. Her unemployed but entrepreneurial brother and his nice but not nice girlfriend lives with her and her son.

Oh! and we have a pleasant surprise of Jimmi Simpson in it. He plays Rachel’s lawyer/friend Andy.

There. The characters are at play. Ready?

Running late to get her boy to school, Rachel pulls up behind a truck at a red light. When it goes green, the truck doesn’t move. Rachel waits. And waits. Now, right here, this moment, is where the movie tells you what it is, but you don’t think about it. Instead of a courtesy “beep”— you know, just a quick press on the horn, a light beep — she full on HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONKS at the truck. Look I get it, she’s in a rush, her ex-husband is going after the house, her life is busy and stressful, but it still just didn’t work for me. Her first instinct is to just lay on the horn like some …. well …. Karen.

Turns out who she honked at was crazy Man. There’s an exchange of words at the next light between Man, the son, and Rachel, who has become cowardly suddenly. The car window won’t work so they are forced to listen to this guy. He demands an apology and asks why she didn’t give him a courtesy honk. She has no answer because she’s suddenly scared. She says she doesn’t have to apologize because she did nothing wrong, he wasn’t moving. He angrily, but calmly explains that he’s been through some shit. She doesn’t care and — look I get it. This woman is so wrapped up in her own life she can’t possibly conceive that someone else might be having a hard time too. I also get that yeah, she should be kinda nervous. Okay so, it’s shaky, a little sexist, but okay. Then he starts to menace her, WITH HER SON IN THE CAR, chasing her around the town. Following her in his big ass truck while she barely makes the corner in her Volvo. I’m not missing anything. Long honk, angry words, refusal to apologize. MENACE! CHASE!

From here it’s just frustrating. We learn Man just got divorced, his wife cheated on him and took him for everything. Yeah alright, that’s enough to put any rational person in a shitty mood, but dude. This guy goes crazy. Because she honked at him and didn’t apologize (and the opioids he’s been eating for like two days straight) he goes on a damn rampage? It just didn’t work for me. Man’s motivations were not strong enough to justify or even make his actions seem reasonable. Like, Jason Voorhees. We get it, he’s a killer, he kills indiscriminately and his motivation is, mom fucked me up, and now I’m an undead water baby that enjoys murdering stupid teens.

This guy, Man, tortures this poor woman relentlessly throughout the film. He kills people close to her. Threatens her. Steals her stuff. Breaks into her home. Destroys her financial life. Because he’s mad.

My other problem is Rachel’s character. This is no fault of Carren Pistorius, I think she did the best she could with the script she was given, which I’m ninety percent certain said “Rachel is scared” “Rachel crying, is scared” “In this scene, Rachel is scared”

It infuriated me watching it, to see this man stalking, menacing, scaring, scarring this woman and her only reaction is fear. Angry fear, but always fear. Even at the end, WHEN HE PUNCHES THE KID IN THE FACE, she’s barely a hero. In fact, I had so little faith in the characters ability to deal with Man, I was hoping the police would show up to deal with, just so it would end, you know?

I get that that’s supposed to be the point. Sometimes people snap and they do terrible things for just the worst reasons, or no reason and that’s what makes it scary. That’s real life. In movies stories, our villains can be that, but their motivations must be clear and we as the viewer/reader etc need to sympathize with those motivations otherwise the villain, in my opinion, comes off as incomplete and honestly, just kind of a bad character.

Oh and if you’re wondering about Crowe’s performance? It’s fine. I mean he’s angry. So he plays angry, ragey, lunatic. And he does it well, for the most part. There’s a few moments that are cheesy or cringey but, it’s fine all in all.

Don’t watch this movie. Please. It’s tone deaf. It came out at the wrong time. It’s not even very good.

Skip it.