It’s been a while since we’ve seen humans slaughtered as nature intended: on a full-sized movie screen. So, by way of encouraging those brave enough to follow the first major post-lockdown release into an actual theater, Solstice Studios presents “Unhinged,” a psycho-killer story that will leave you feeling as beat-down as its casualties.
Leading the way is a super-ticked-off Russell Crowe as a seething lump credited only as Man. When we meet him, he’s yanking off his wedding ring, grabbing an ax and obliterating his ex-wife and her new partner before incinerating their home. Not an amicable divorce, then.
Continuing the marital-discord theme, Carl Ellsworth’s monotonously brutal screenplay introduces Rachel (Caren Pistorius), a harried single mother juggling a freeloading brother and a troublesome, estranged husband. Running late for her son’s school drop-off, Rachel unwisely angers the driver of a pickup truck (Crowe) when he fails to respond to a green light. She is about to be very, very sorry.
Playing a murderous, opioid-popping misogynist in a greasy genre picture is a curious move for an actor of Crowe’s repute, yet he’s nothing if not game. Face locked in a sweaty grimace, his menacing bulk squeezed behind steering wheels and diner tables, Crowe is as serious as the heart attack his character threatens to have any minute. But while Derrick Borte’s filmmaking is bluntly efficient — and the vehicular stunt work impressive — the character is a windup toy, a dumb and dirty symbol of male grievance.
Don’t be fooled by the movie’s scattered references to a culture of rage and declining civility: “Unhinged” is as far from serious social critique as Man is from his sanity.
Unhinged
Rated R for death by knife, hammer, fire and pickup truck. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Opening in theaters.
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‘Unhinged’ Review: Car Shark - The New York Times
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