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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this film is extremely violent and is not meant for kids. The fight scenes include the sounds of bones breaking, with prominent displays of blood, bruising, and limbs twisting. The premise itself is potentially distressing, as it has a young boy imprisoned and trained to fight on command by a loud-mouthed loan shark; he sets the grown-up version (Jet Li) loose on his debtors by growling "Get 'em!", feeds him chunks of food, locks him in a cage, and calls him his "dog." The underclass villains use harsh and colorful language (frequent use of the f-word, in multiple formations). The gangster assaults prostitutes on top of cars. Jet Li fights in an underground betting arena (like dogfights), where contestants use large knives and hammers, though eventually the gangsters become frustrated and use automatic weapons too. Many characters are killed in hand-hand-combat. There is a very disturbing scene where a child sees his mother shot in the head in front of him.

Families can talk about the formation of the good, supportive family, who helps Danny (Jet Li) to resist the terrible fate he thinks is inevitable. How do you know what your options might be, if your horizons seem so limited? How does music help you to get through difficult periods or inspire you to do good work?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs

First, what you expect: in UNLEASHED, Jet Li plays a reluctant warrior; Bob Hoskins a foul-mouthed, lunatic gangster (in Glasgow, to allow for Snatch-ish subcultural extremities); Morgan Freeman a wise and patient mentor. The fight scenes, while ferocious, are also frankly awesome, brilliantly choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping and inventively shot by Pierre Morel (who also worked on writer-producer Luc Besson's Joan of Arc).

Second, what you might not expect: the narrative combines melodrama, martial arts conventions (underdog wins, intelligence overcomes brawn), and sly twists on formula. Though the film is not quite satire, it does show that its makers know their genre history and expect viewers to keep up. Jet Li plays the imprisoned and much-abused Danny, caged and collared by Hoskins until needed to persuade debtors to pay up. When Danny breaks free -- accidentally, after Bart's car is shot up by enemies and Danny believes him to be dead -- he is taken in by blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman). Living in Glasgow so his strangely childish 18-year-old stepdaughter Victoria (Kerry Condon) can attend music school, he senses Danny's appreciation of music.

And third, the utter surprise: as spastic and strange as it sounds, the film is okay. Danny is a flat-out fantasy character -- poetically naïve and trained to kill like an animal. This makes his aggression (visceral and brutal in the film's stop- and slow-motion, time lapse speediness, and Matrix-ish wirework) a function of his abuse, not his immoral character. This means that he can eventually feel guilty and remorseful, but not so much that he must be punished -- as this previous career is surely punishment enough. Plus, he learns that his mother was murdered in front of him (the reason remains unclear), which means that he has been traumatized in multiple ways. he's not so responsible for his nearly sociopathic, non-emotional response to violence. All he has ever known (until he starts to remember his mother, who played the piano as well) is to attack on command. Now that he starts to play music and listen to it carefully, he sees also that he doesn't have to "hurt people."

The film even raises a few worthwhile questions concerning identity, memory, and the effects of abuse. Though this film is definitely not for younger viewers, it offers a thoughtful (if occasionally battering) meditation on the "magic" of music, the transcendence allowed by Mozart, and the strength to be gained from family, however ragtag or unusual in structure. Jet Li is excellent (Besson has long held to this premise; see also the less well-crafted Kiss of the Dragon), the visual excess is calculated, and the Massive Attack and RZA soundtrack is sharp. Brutal and bizarre, UNLEASHED is peculiarly moving.

Families who liked this movie are encouraged to seek out other Jet Li films, especially those made in China (he's been at this for 20 years, even though the U.S. is only recently discovering him), such as Hitman or the Once Upon a Time in China series.

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