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Unleashed Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for strong violent content, language, and some sexuality/nudity) Theater release: May 13, 2005 by Rogue Pictures Directed by: Louis Leterrier Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes Cast: Jet Li (Danny), Morgan Freeman (Sam), Bob Hoskins (Bart), Kerry Condon (Victoria), Andy Beckwith (Righty) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

The conventions of the martial arts movie are fairly straightforward. The bad guys spend the first part of the movie behaving abominably, so that we will cheer when the hero finally administers the merciless beating they so richly deserve. The hero is spiritual, and sexually chaste, while the bad guys are degenerate and evil. Plot and character development are contrivances that serve only to propel the action forward. Nobody thinks to shoot the hero with a gun. Done well, it's a lot of fun to watch.

Jet Li is one of the best, and best known, martial artists working in film today. Now in his forties, he has been an international star since the 1991 Once Upon a Time in China. In his early Chinese films, which used no special effects, we see a marvelous athlete, a performer who blends martial arts, gymnastics, and ballet into a seamless, graceful spectacle. But Li wanted to work on a film that would transcend the genre constraints of the kung fu epic. He wanted a chance to act in a multi-dimensional role.

Jet Li plays the role of the slave, Danny

The results are mixed. Li's Danny has been conditioned by sensory deprivation and behavioral conditioning to behave like an attack dog. He is kept in a cage and fed scraps. He cringes like a dog as he follows his master, Bart (Hoskins) on his loan shark collections. When Bart removes Danny's dog collar Danny attacks with the single-mindedness of a pit bull, mauling those who are behind in their payments. When the carnage is complete he returns to his master, who replaces the collar. Once the collar is on, Danny is constrained and cowed.

For the character of Danny, Li chose to change his fighting style to reflect the way a dog would attack. Instead of dispatching multiple opponents with a punch here and a kick there, Danny focuses on one adversary at a time. Like a fighting dog, he latches on, oblivious of the others in the pack. Once finished with an opponent, he sets upon the next one. While the fight scenes show off Li's incredible speed and skill, they seem at times bit too contained. None the less, it's a clever variant.

Bob Hoskins (right) is the slaveowner who treats Danny like a dog

The opening scenes of Unleashed are brutal, as in most martial arts movies. In the gritty alleys and basements of the Glasgow underworld, Danny is unleashed upon gangsters who refuse to pay up. Bob Hoskins returns to a version of the cockney mobster that made him famous in The Long Good Friday. His Bart is a bit over the top, as befits the genre, but he's a believably terrifying villain. The other bad guys are simple contrivances, and without Hoskins the evil side of this film would be no more compelling than a cartoon.

While on a job for Bart, Danny wanders into a basement where Sam, a blind piano tuner, is working. Sam (Freeman)is kind and patient as he tries to draw the autistic Danny into the world of music and conversation. Later on, Danny escapes Bart's control and finds Sam, who takes him home. There, Danny meets Sam's charming, vivacious step-daughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon), an enchanting innocent. She is the polar opposite of the brutal gangsters who have turned Danny into a killer. The color and texture of the film change from a cold, gray grittiness, to warm tones of oak paneling and comfortably stuffed chairs. The change is a bit extreme, and it as though we have left the movie to see another one in the adjoining theatre.

Hard-core action fans may not know what to make of this interlude where the terrified, introverted Danny is patiently coaxed out of his emotionally circumscribed existence. He hides in corners and under the bed as Sam and Victoria try to lure him with food and kind words. Danny behaves like an abused mongrel that has been rescued from the pound, which is the effect he was striving for. Without Morgan Freeman's tremendous presence, these scenes would have fallen flat, but Freeman could read from the tax codes and move us. To his credit, he gives the role his all, and it shows. Taking their cues from Freeman, Condon and Li pull off this unlikely scenario fairly well.

Morgan Freeman plays a kindly blind piano tuner who befriends Danny

Bart and his evil minions could have left well enough alone at this point. But no! They just can't let Danny be. Danny, who has forsworn violence, must eventually administer the requisite beatings. This theme has underpinned many a western. In films like Shane and High Noon, we could have it both ways. The hero is a peaceful, decent man who wants no trouble from anyone. We like people like that, but they aren't very much fun to watch for two hours. When the bad guys just won't relent, our kindhearted hero lets them have it with a vengeance. Then he goes back to being a nice guy again. At least that's how it was before anti-heroes like Clint Eastwood turned the western on its head.

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