Unhinged Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Unhinged Blu-ray Movie Review

Triggered.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 19, 2021

One could say that the lesson in Unhinged boils down to "be careful about honking that car horn" but such a simple takeaway would undermine the movie's none-too-subtle but also none-too-insightful commentary on the stresses and the increasingly reachable and fragile psychological breaking points that are all too common in today's ever-triggered society. Writer Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye) and Director Derrick Borte (American Dreamer) craft a capably tight, if not mostly superficial, Thriller with real-life Horror overtones in Unhinged, following the story of a common man turned madman and a mother's desperate fight for survival when everyday frustrations boil over into unthinkable violence.

Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is a struggling mother and recent divorcee who is taking her lumps and working to rebuild a crumbled life. While driving her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) to school on a particularly busy morning on congested freeways, dealing with her ex’s latest demands, and losing a key client in her fledgling hair styling business, she finds herself near the end of her rope. At a light, a large pickup truck refuses to budge on green. Rachel blares the horn and zips around the stopped vehicle. At the next light, the truck catches up to her. The driver, Tom Cooper (Russell Crowe), rolls down the window and, after explaining the difference between an angry honk and a “courtesy tap,” apologizes for zoning out. Rachel, however, refuses to apologize for her actions. The triggered driver refuses to let the incident go. He stalks Rachel, snags her phone while she’s parked at a gas station, and threatens all she holds dear: her friends, her family, her own life. With her phone at his fingertips, Cooper holds Rachel’s life in the palm of his hand. As the violence intensifies and the body count mounts, Rachel finds herself in a desperate fight to survive a harrowing ordeal, all because of a honked horn.

Unhinged is a bit too superficial to make a lasting impact. It certainly has notes of Falling Down, another story story of a man who loses control in a deteriorating world, and Duel, Steven Spielberg's supremely chilling, and entertaining, tale pitting an everyday man and his car against a faceless and relentless truck driver on out-of-the-way roads. Though Unhinged plays with a quick pace and a quicker pulse, it’s not as psychologically astute as Falling Down and it’s not as well made or dramatically intense as Duel, but this is a solid Thriller that thrives on the visceral response and introduces only enough of the psychological underpinnings to leave the audience thinking rather than spoon feeding the “whys.” But certainly this sort of “unhinged” state hangs in the air in today’s society. Knee jerks, not cooler heads, prevail these days, and it is by the very societal fabric and social milieu in which the audience watches the movie that it is, sadly, spoken clearly enough to allow it to all come together with terrifying plausible realism.

Crowe’s character is not provided a significant backstory beyond a name and an opening scene in which he assaults a man and burns a house down, obviously having some real attachment to his life and his broken mental state. The relative absence of in-depth psychology or narrative prodding actually helps build the tension, the uncertainty, the randomness of his violent actions. At one point in the film he claims that “suicide by cop” – essentially inciting police to shoot and kill him – holds an appeal, so it’s clear that the man’s life is broken, and seemingly irreparably so. Crowe does little with the part beyond plumping up for the role (and probably supported by some prosthetics under his clothes) and bringing a ceaselessly dour attitude to the screen. It’s an effective portrayal of a broken man who only craves escape and, it seems, brining others down with him. The rest of the cast, including Caren Pistorius as the lead protagonist, plays the parts well enough but without any immediate depth or opportunities for analysis in the movie’s aftermath.

Unhinged Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unhinged, digitally photographed, yields a nice looking image on Blu-ray. The picture is plenty sharp, revealing intimate facial details -- Cooper's facial hair, for example, serving as the most dense and obviously complex -- with screen-commanding clarity. Environments are likewise well defined across several key locales, including Rachel's car interior, a diner that plays home to a key sequence partway through the film, and even a dusty, cluttered hideaway where one character takes shelter during the climax. The picture rarely wants for sharper or more organic detailing, clearly satisfying the film's demands and offering a good, efficient, as-expected Blu-ray viewing experience. Colors are impressive for tonal truthfulness and contrast excellence. The palette does not push overzealously warm or look in any way desaturated. It's right down the middle, bringing healthy, vibrant life to Cooper's shirt, Rachel's red car, and blood as seen late in the film. Skin tones appear accurate and there are no problems with black levels to report. The digitally shot film does leave behind some noise in places, rarely dense and not usually bothersome, even in darker scenes, such as the hideaway mentioned above. There are no other serious source or encode artifacts to be found.

Unhinged Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unhinged features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The track demonstrates pinpoint command of its elements from the opening scene. Rainfall saturates the stage with precise, immersive placement with each drop impacting surfaces – a road, a car window – with exacting detail and perfect location immersion, including a satisfying overhead extension. An explosion heard moments later presents with balanced depth and propulsive stage fill. A symphony of traffic sounds – squealing tires, honking horns – shape much of the rest of the movie as Tom and Rachel play chase on various roadways, both busy highways and neighborhood streets. A few crashes hit hard and vehicle rollovers spill through the stage with impressive movement and positional adeptness. The low end certainly adds some punch to the crunch, too. Music plays with excellent width and surround implementation. It also never wants for added clarity. Dialogue is clear and center-focused for the duration.

Unhinged Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unhinged contains two supplements: an audio commentary track and a featurette. DVD and digital copies are included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover (does anyone else see Hannibal Lecter here?).

• Audio Commentary: Director Derrick Borte, Cinematographer Brendan Galvin, Prodcution Designer Freddy Waff & Costume Designer Denise Wingate explore the film from the production side.
• This Side of Rage (1080p, 27:12): Exploring the story, the psychological underpinnings, technical workmanship, characters and performances, production design, and more

Unhinged Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Unhinged reflects today's society where the term "hair trigger" no longer means a firearm with a light trigger pull, instead morphed to describe the fragile human psyche and the angry response to the slightest annoyance or provocation. The movie is rich with subtext which it doesn't really explore, leaving that to the audience and focusing on the superficial ebbs and flows instead. It works well enough in that context but don't expect the next great social commentary film. Find instead a simple tale of random violence run amok. Lionsgate delivers a well-rounded Blu-ray which features quality video and audio output as well as a couple of extras. Recommended.