Unhinged is a film that should probably just have been called Road Rage: The Message. Or perhaps, “Unhinged: You know, the bad guy kind of had a point there at the start of this… too bad he killed those people and burned down their house” (but that wouldn’t fit on a marquee). But whatever it’s called, it’s a decent but flawed film with a weird mixture of not having a point beyond raw thrills and having too much of a (muddled) point.

The flick is about an overwhelmed mother who snaps at a fellow motorist at a stop light. That motorist (played by a very beefy Russel Crowe) turns out to be quite the psychopath with a grudge against… well… against everyone, apparently. He proceeds to chase her around town and torment her friends in order to teach her a (Saw-Like?) message. Not much more plot than that and, really, it doesn’t NEED more plot if it’s done well enough.

And, hey, there are some genuinely suspenseful and exciting sequences in this film. Most of the time when there’s a car chase and vehicular chaos, the movie cooks. But when it slows down for some suspense and cat-and-mouse sequences, it basically falls flat on its nose.

PLUS – and most egregious – the bad guy winds up talking too much and turning what could have been an insidious Shape (like in Halloween) or a mysterious stranger (like in The Hitcher) into a kind of whiny masculine loser. Yeah, he’s still dangerous but there’s this that he’s more than just a little pathetic. And I’m sure the screenwriters were trying to make a point about emasculation or toxic masculinity or something… but in their attempt to wave some kind of message flag, they forgot to keep their villain a villain.

But, hey, if none of that bothers you, if you like a big beefy man turned into a joke, or you nod your head at his grievances even though you dislike his methods (hi Falling Down), you might get more into the movie than I did. It’s certainly not a failure and it’s certainly watchable for the basic raw nerve thriller it can (sometimes) be. Maybe worth a shot if you just want 90 minutes of cat-and-mouse thrills.

Score: 76