UNHINGED

US, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson, Austin P.McKenzie.
Directed by Derrick Borte.

If you have driven to see Unhinged, be very careful and cautious driving home. This is a film about Road Rage. In fact, it is a very disturbing film whether you are a driver or not.

There is no mistaking the tone of the film. In the first few minutes the audience sees Russell Crowe sitting in the van at night outside the house. He eventually goes in, sounds of his bashing the people inside to death, then setting the house alight. Who is he? And why?

Eventually we do get some indications of answers but not before the driver spends most of the film is running time pursuing and persecuting Rachel (Caren Pistorius) and her son, Kyle (Gabriel Bateman).

It starts as one of those days but finishes as worst day ever. Rachel is running late for work and has to drop Kyle at school. Because she is late, stuck in an enormous traffic jam, bumper-to-bumper forever, she received a phone call firing her for being late. She is rather tense, to say the least. And that big SUV in front of the lights, does not move when the lights change and she gives some blasts on the horn, going in front of it and turning the corner.

Yes, it is Russell Crowe at the wheel. And he begins the persecution in pursuit, getting Kyle to roll down the window, reprimanding Rachel for not giving a polite to type and toot instead of blasting on the horn, bumping into on the Road, all kinds of threats. And, Russell Crowe is a hugely imposing presence (literally huge these days), unrelenting.

Eventually, there is some explanation of why the driver is hellbent on destruction, the man was being fired, humiliated and who will take out his vengeance on anyone who crosses him – even a very alarming sequences where he kills Rachel’s friend at a diner.

On the one hand Rachel’s nerves are on edge after she drops Kyle at school. The driver has her phone, goes through all the messages, knows all about her, wants her to nominate a victim and, when she nominates herself, that is not good enough.

Some bloggers think that she did not act sensibly at all. On the other hand, the screenplay gives the opportunity to call the police, get them into action for protection of those threatened. What else can one do!

There is a climax, Rachel having picked up Kyle from school. There is menace. There is something of a siege. There is reckless driving and pileups on the roads.

In the past there was Steven Spielberg’s Duel. There was also the striking 1990s film with Michael Douglas, Falling Down, the desperation of a working man who finds his world collapsing. This one is more focused. Some brutal sequences in an alarming story.

1. The title? The driver? Mentally unhinged? Morally unhinged? Vengeance-oriented?

2. The plausibility of the plot, Rachel, late, driving her son to school, the traffic jam? The driver, stopped at the lights, her blowing the horn? The consequences? Road rage?

3. The heightened drama of the story, taking place over a couple of hours? The realism, the roads, the cars, driving, dangers, manoeuvres, crashes and deaths? The heightened realism for the drama, situation is contrived? Audiences identifying with Rachel, with Kyle, against the driver?

4. The opening, Russell Crowe, his screen presence, age, bulk, intimidating? In the car, into the house, the killings, setting the house on fire? The preparation for the drama? The audience knowing what it was like? Rachel not knowing?

5. Rachel, sleeping late, Kyle going to school, her ex-husband and the divorce, the phone calls, the arrangements? Kyle and his age, sensible, missing his father, missing out on the football match? Rachel running late, her work, her client ringing and firing her? In the traffic jam, more anxious?

6. The SUV, at the lights, not moving, Rachel blowing the horn, turning the corner, the driver and his pursuit, opening the windows, explaining polite toots instead of blasting the horn? Intimidating?

7. The consequences of the pursuit, getting off the freeway, on the side roads, the driver still pursuing, bumping into the back of her, his continued threats? Her fears? Delivering Kyle to school? The phone call to Andy, arranging to meet him? Going into the service station? The driver there, the man in the shop assisting her, in the car, the driver hitting him, in the path of an oncoming car? The people in the store? Phoning the police?

8. The decisions that Rachel made, the contact with the police? Audience criticisms that she was foolish? Other audience comments that she was sensible?

9. The driver, with Rachel’s phone, going through the messages, learning about her ex-husband, her son, her job, her mother? Talking with Andy – and ultimately the brutality of killing him? People taking pictures? On television news, on social media?

10. The driver forcing Rachel to give him a name, her offering herself, his refusal, her naming the woman who sacked her – and the police arriving in time to protect her?

11. Rachel and her brother, the driver confronting him and his fiancee, torturing the fiance, Freddie with the knife, the driver impaling the fiancee? Forcing Freddie to write the letter denouncing Rachel? The phone contact, making him read the letter, the fluid and the lighter? Setting him alight? The driver blaming Rachel?

12. The information about the driver from the police, his age, his work, being sacked, resentment, part-time job, losing the work? The effect, going on the rampage? (And the parallel with Rachel being fired by her employer and her anger?)

13. Picking up Kyle from school, the hesitations of the principal, Rachel’s demands? Kyle and explaining the game, hiding in familiar ground, the decision to go to her mother’s house, checking with the police, the pileup on the road and the many dead?

14. Kyle and the hiding place, the driver and the phones and iPads and locations, his finding the car, the house, his brutal treatment of Rachel? Into the house, Kyle with the noise, his mother finding him?

15. The brutality of the fight for survival? The scissors, wounding the driver, his death?

16. Audiences and their response to the basic situation, the anger of the driver and his being fired, resentment inventions, the angry behaviour of Rachel and the consequences, experiences of Road Rage?