Jet Li plays Danny, a trained killing machine who meets Sam (Morgan Freeman), a blind piano repairman who takes him in and teaches him civility.
Hollywood’s in trouble. Faced with a banner year of listless crap, moviegoers have rebelled, and so far, 2005’s box office has been plummeting in comparison to the last few years. Moviegoers need something that has visceral thrills as well as a human heart at its center. And if they see Unleashed this weekend, that’s exactly what they’ll get — an exciting, emotional reason to attend the multiplexes this year.
Unleashed has been making the sort of world tour foreign films tend to make before an American release, and it has already been released in several countries overseas under the title Danny the Dog. Still, its English-language appeal is universal, and its struggle is innately human: the search for identity in a sea of bloodshed and the need for love amid a backdrop of cross-cultural confusion.
Soft-spoken international martial arts star Jet Li (Hero, Cradle 2 the Grave) is the piece’s hero, introduced to us as a shoulders-hunched slave of villainous cockney gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins). Bart keeps Danny by his side, his neck clasped by a steel leash, though when Bart removes the collar and utters the words, “Get ’em,” Danny becomes a whirling, maniacal fighting machine, easily sending gangs of criminals back to their masters in pieces. Once the carnage is over, the leash returns, and Bart moves closer to monopolizing the criminal element of Glasgow, Scotland.
Still, the boastful Bart is troubled: Danny is recognizing his slavery, the other hired goons are severe idiots and he’s having dreams bad enough for him to drop the didactic specter of Freud. Bart doesn’t begin to realize that as he’s raping another victim, a level below him is Danny, poring over A-B-C books, studying the word “piano” as his punching bag slowly leaks sand. Indeed, it is Bart’s act of sexual penetration that demeans Danny’s existence even further, as he is first referred to as a dog and then as a bitch, insulting a sexuality his elementary-level education prevents him from understanding.
Danny is eventually freed and wanders into the home of the blind piano repairman Sam (Morgan Freeman). Realizing this stranger is alone in Glasgow, he lets the refugee in, and it’s not long before the childlike Danny is learning to cook and ditching his formerly violent nature in order to share his first ice cream cone with Sam’s 18-year-old stepdaughter, Victoria.
Freeman has mastered playing characters like Sam, but the Oscar winner is still moving as a humanitarian, and his overtly kind gestures never come across as anything but purely genuine. He sharpens Danny’s civility as he would tune a piano. However, Victoria, played by newcomer Kerry Condon, isn’t believable as a jumpy, talkative nymphette who develops a crush on Danny. While she never becomes a true distraction, her crush manifests as a kiss on the cheek, though later in a fantasy sequence she is seen morphing into Danny’s long-lost mother.
It goes without saying that violence finds its way to Sam’s doorstep, and a peaceful Danny is forced to confront his past. And if you think you know Jet Li, Unleashed will make you think again. Those of you who know Li from his lackluster American efforts like The One and Cradle 2 the Grave will marvel at the extreme physical skills on display here. However, if you know Li from his earlier years in Hong Kong martial arts epics Once Upon a Time in China and Fist of Legend, well, you’ll be stunned as well: There is no grace to these battles, as the normally showy Li is an animal, tearing at his victims and throwing furious jabs before the audience can blink. The fights are choreographed by The Matrix’s Yuen Wo Ping, but don’t expect dramatic, slow-motion fist fights or even wire work: Punches are thrown at close range, with maximum teeth-rattling fury.
Unleashed, from the pen of genre master Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita), is drenched in pulp. Director Louis Leterrier, who last served as artistic director on The Transporter, is at home depicting the seedy Glasgow underworld. While Li’s combat skills are spotlighted, Leterrier never misses an opportunity to establish his surroundings: One battle in particular happens in an underground fight club, where the term “gladiator-style” is taken literally, with Danny facing off against a team of imaginatively clad warriors.
Pulpier than anything else is Hoskins’ nasty Bart. The cursing, flailing, duplicitous snake manages to survive numerous beatings and shootings, continuing to wear the archetypal white suit for the entire film and a neck brace to contrast with Danny’s restrictive collar, portraying a thematic iconography at which this film excels.
Unleashed’s music may be the film’s most cohesive theme. Danny seems to be rescued by music, as pianos lead him to Sam and eventually to the importance of teaming with Victoria, giving Danny the strength to assist in the act of creation instead of destruction. To accent this, an atypical score is used, with music by trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack that climbs and falls with each dramatic spike, using a chaotic cadence that sets the tone for one of this year’s best releases. Indeed, this is music to the ears: Unleashed will restore your faith in going to the movies.
