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By Chris Honoré for Revels January 08. 2015 12:01AM 'Unbroken' is an intense, moving character study Jack O'Connell appears in a scene from "Unbroken." PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES. Unbroken, 2 hrs 17 min, Rated PG-13 The newly released film “Unbroken,” based on Lauren Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-selling book titled “Unbroken: A Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” has generated much critical buzz. Hillenbrand is also the author of the acclaimed “Seabiscuit.” Director Angelina Jolie has created a film that closely tracks the first 25 years of an extraordinary individual, Louis Zamperini. In essence, it’s an intense and moving film that’s an almost unbearable character study. “Unbroken” opens with Louis (Jack O’Connell), an Army Air Corps bombardier, hunched over a Norden bombsight, on a mission over Japan. Through a series of seamless flashbacks, while gazing out at the distant horizon, he reflects on his early years as a young hell-raiser whose salvation was the discovery that he could run like the wind, an ability that resulted in his being selected for the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team. This backstory proves a relevant and an engaging part of Louis’ history. A search and rescue mission over the Pacific, one ending in a deadly crash (the plane breaks down mechanically), sets up a protracted second act that comprises the bulk of the film. Louis and one other survivor of the Pacific ditching, pilot Russell “Phil” Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson), drift on a raft for 47 days, until finally, regrettably, they are rescued by the Japanese. He and Phil spend more than two years in a POW camp, Louis selected for special torment and punishment by a sadistic, unbalanced guard named “The Bird” (Takamasa Ishihara). What Louis survives is torture beyond all endurance, his body and will tested, prompting him to recall an aphorism repeated by his brother Pete (Alex Russell) while Louis trained for the Olympics: “If you can take it, you can make it.” But because the story of Louis Zamperini, as told by Jolie and her stable of writers, is one of survival against impossible odds, the film’s externality becomes its harrowing focus. What is revealed about Louis’ strength of character as he faces the unrelenting Bird is told with a gripping and moving clarity. What is disclosed about him as a complex character remains by necessity secondary. That is both the strength and the weakness of “Unbroken,” requiring a quick wrap, of sorts, at the film’s end. Still, this film, Jolie’s second directorial effort, is well worth finding, as is the book, which was all but impossible to compress into 137 minutes. “Unbroken” will not disappoint.     http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150108/NEWS/150109942 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->