“Unhinged” has built its marketing strategy around helping usher people back into theaters, hoping pent-up demand after months without movie-going will sustain this low-budget thriller starring Russell Crowe. Whatever crumbs of logic reside in that scheme, as risk-benefit analysis goes venturing out to see a grim, unappealing movie seems unwarranted, unwise and wholly unnecessary.
“Unnecessary” is key here, since most of the movies that have played a chess game of release delays against coronavirus – a list topped by “Tenet” and “Mulan,” before Disney opted to stream the latter – represent splashy theatrical experiences that lend themselves to a big screen.
“Unhinged,” by contrast, is basically an anti-blockbuster, a small-scale movie with a throwback drive-in feel that loses nothing in an at-home setting, and based on its minimal merit, has little to lose in any event.
Although the film has been billed as a “road-rage thriller,” that’s not 100 percent accurate, since the story gives the game away in the opening scene. Sitting in his car, Crowe’s character looks desperate, removes his wedding ring and commits an act of violence, revealing this isn’t just a regular guy who snaps (think the controversial 1993 Michael Douglas film “Falling Down”) but rather somebody who has already crossed the line to murderous psychopath.
Enter Rachel (Caren Pistorius), a newly single mom trying to get her kid to school on time amid awful traffic. Receiving some bad news in the car, she’s in a foul mood when she honks at the wrong guy.
When Crowe’s stranger demands an apology and Rachel protests that she’s having a bad morning, he sneers, “I don’t think you really know what a bad day is.” He then proceeds to demonstrate that point by pursuing his revenge for the slight, triggering a series of chases and escalating mayhem.
Obviously, the template of an ordinary person thrust into perilous circumstances isn’t new – just among movies about poor decision-making by drivers, “The Hitcher” comes to mind – along with mining horror from an everyday experience. Bearded and burly, Crowe projects a sense of menace, even in this low-octane vehicle.
Still, “Unhinged” overreaches and then some with an opening montage of road-rage incidents and scenes of general chaos, framing the film against the backdrop of people being angry, nerves fraying and society hanging by a thread. However true that might be, it’s an unfortunate case of foolishly trying to connect a movie clearly designed to deliver cheap thrills for 90 minutes to some deeper theme.
Perhaps that’s why watching “Unhinged” (screened, incidentally, at home) provokes a different kind of annoyance. Because in terms of what the movies need now, it doesn’t exhibit much sense in reading the room, even if that room is an empty theater.
“Unhinged” premieres Aug. 21 in theaters in the US. It’s rated R.