Unhinged Movie Review

Unhinged (2020)

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Written by: Carl Ellsworth
Directed by: Derrick Borte
Starring: Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson
Rated: R
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Plot
After a confrontation with an unstable man at an intersection, a woman becomes the target of his rage.

Verdict
As expected it's a pulpy thriller. Crowe is seriously scary, but the undertone of this movie explores unjustified white male rage. That's unsettling with the acts of violence happening in the real world perpetrated by white men. This commentary makes for the added depth of psychologically scary, but the message this movie hints towards errs on the wrong side of the issue. Undertones aside, the movie is more filler than thriller.
Skip it.

Review
The very first scene sets up the unnamed man (Russell Crowe) in the truck. As the title suggests this man is unhinged. Then we get a PSA on bad drivers, the lack of civility in the world, and the unrest of society during credits.
There's a bit too much setup for what this is. I'm watching this for a thriller, but the information dump is a foundation for what's to come. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is a struggling mother, at least that seems to be the point, but the movie makes her look a bit irresponsible. It's an unflattering look.

Russel Crowe plays the unnamed man.

Finally we get to the crux of the movie. The man seems to be looking for a victim, invoking someone to honk their horn so he can rampage. Crowe does a great job of being creepy and overbearing. He exchanges words with Rachel and that seems to be the end of it, but we know it isn't. Somehow, and it seems like a stretch, the man finds Rachel.

The unnamed man is the embodiment of unjustified white male rage. He's blaming Rachel for everything, and it seems he's a misogynist. He immediately sides against Rachel when he learns she's getting a divorce. His hate for Rachel is unfounded.
This feels slightly like a corollary to Falling Down, but that was a man mad at the world. Unhinged is a man mad at himself and his life, taking it out on a woman that dared stand up to him.

Caren Pistorius plays Rachel.

The timing of some of these car crashes ensures maximum destruction, but that's what this movie is. It's going to take liberties to thrill. This isn't graphic until the end, but it's scary and unsettling. This feels a bit too close to reality.
I have to question Rachel's plan. She decides to set a trap when she could have u-turned on the highway and driven towards the cops instead of trying a solo battle.

What really gets me about this movie is the stinger at the end. Rachel refrains from honking her car horn, ostensibly to avoid a situation like she had with the unnamed man, but is her lesson that she should avoid upsetting petulant men? I get the movie just wants a related stinger, but it can't escape the underlying themes. At face value the message seems to be that Rachel needs to behave differently, but that's incorrect.