Review: Unbroken

A beautifully embalmed biopic, Unbroken charts the extraordinary survival story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days at sea only to be captured by the Japanese and sent to a detention camp during World War II. Zamperini's life had enough drama to spawn three separate films; Unbroken is, if nothing else, a highly ambitious undertaking with Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller adapted by an impressive quartet (Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravanese, and William Nicholson), exquisitely lensed by cinematographer Roger Deakins, and confidently directed by Angelina Jolie.

The film opens in the heavens with the B-24 "Liberator" bombers flying into view. Zamperini (Jack O'Connell) and his comrades drop their payload on the Japanese bases and soon find themselves engaged in aerial combat. It's a thrilling sequence - one can feel the weight of the metal, how enemy fire can shred the planes like paper, how the men are both confined and exposed, and how, in the nailbiting scene where Zamperini navigates a narrow catwalk above the wide open bay doors, the merest slip could send you to a watery grave.

As the battered plane makes its way back to the base, we flash back to Zamperini as a young boy (C.J. Valleroy) fidgeting in church as the priest concludes the sermon: "Forgive the sin. Accept the darkness. Love thine enemy." The wayward son of Italian immigrants living in Torrance, California, he seems resigned to a life of delinquency but his older brother Pete (first played by John D'Leo, then Alex Russell) recognizes his talent and urges him to take up track. Zamperini matures into a high-school track star, whose speed qualifies him to participate in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he manages to come from behind to place eighth in the 5,000-meter race.

Back on the warfront, Zamperini and ten men are charged with a recovery mission, one that requires them to cover a lot of ocean with a barely airworthy plane. Soon enough, the engines give out one by one, forcing the plane to make a crash landing, crumpling upon impact in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Of the 11 men aboard, only Zamperini, his pilot pal Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) and new tail gunner Mac (Finn Wittrock) survive. For the next 47 days, they contend with dwindling rations, the merciless sun and an equally merciless storm, thoughts of hopelessness, shark-infested waters, the assault of an enemy plane, and Mac's death. Though Zamperini keeps himself and the men going with tales of his mother's homemade gnocchi, even he wonders if they'll make it out alive. Get me through this, he prays to God, and I'll dedicate my life to you.

Yet like Job, Zamperini's faith must undergo numerous trials. He and Phil are picked up by a Japanese warship and beaten for information before being dispatched to separate internment camps. Zamperini catches the eye of commandant Watanabe (Takamasa Ishihara, aka Japanese singer-songwriter Miyavi), who takes especial pleasure in challenging Zamperini's spirit, whether it be in repeated blows to Zamperini's flesh with a kendo stick or ordering the other prisoners to line up and, one by one, punch Zamperini in the face. Just because. Miyavi, making his feature film debut, has a silkiness that lends itself well to Watanabe's ambiguous sexual presence; he ably conveys his character's perverse pathology.

It's hard to believe that O'Connell is the same actor who appeared in Starred Up and '71 - he is that unrecognisable - but what is abundantly clear from those two films and his portrayal here in Unbroken is that he is one of the most physically expressive actors around, communicating volumes with a downturned glance or a sag of the shoulders. There is no doubt of Zamperini's indomitable will in O'Connell's intense performance.

Unbroken bears all the hallmarks of a prestige film - it's hard to fault the technical aspect of this immaculately executed film. Therein lies the problem. It's too polished, even the soot that cakes the prisoners' faces when they're working in the coal barges at the second internment camp seems meticulously coated. The filmmakers present all manner of hellish living conditions, yet the filth feels sanitised. In fact, the entire film is curiously sterile, too awash in the nobility of Zamperini's suffering. While many moments do inspire and affect, they wrench the mind rather than the gut.

Where the film falters is its unresolved focus on Zamperini's faith. There are enough elements here - Alexandre Desplat's swelling score chief amongst them - to mistake Unbroken as a modern retelling of Jesus' story. The closing title cards inform us that Zamperini upheld his end of the bargain he made with God; he devoted his life to Christ and became a motivational Christian speaker. Zamperini also took "Love thine enemy" to heart, visiting many of his former captors and offering them forgiveness. Unbroken would have done well to feature such a scene, but the exclusion is valid. For one thing, it would have hewed too closely to The Railway Man, which centered on the true story of British POW Eric Lomax confronting and forgiving his Japanese captor. More importantly, Watanabe refused to meet with Zamperini after the war - there's no merit in staging a reconciliation on film if Watanabe isn't on the receiving end of Zamperini's absolution. That aside, for a film in which faith and forgiveness are central themes, the scarcity of tribute to his trust in the divine during his tribulations is glaring.

Unbroken

Directed by: Angelina Jolie

Written by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravanese, William Nicholson; adapted from Laura Hillebrand's book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Starring: Jack O'Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Finn Wittrock, Garrett Hedlund, Takamasa Ishihara, Jai Courtney, C.J. Valleroy, John D'Leo, Alex Russell