This was the first film written and directed by M. Night Shyalaman, who would go on to make a film called "The Sixth Sense" a few years later. They're not exactly the same genre of movie, but they both have a very similar feel to them, in both dialogue and overall tone & pacing.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch, and worth the rent, if you can dig it out of the children's section at your local video store (it's rated PG). Good performances from all, with maybe only 1 or 2 scenes giving themselves away, something "The Sixth Sense" wasn't guilty of at all.

That said, it's worth something as a milestone, as well... compare the early works of David Fincher or even Ron Howard, and notice how they got better as they went along, making more movies. This movie is a solid B+, with The Sixth Sense being the obvious A. We can only guess what "Unbreakable" may hold for us.

Great actors and writing in this one, regardless. It is very much the story of young Josh and his search for God, and is not at all a Rosie O'Donnell movie as you may have been led to believe. Well worth watching. Denis Leary never looked so nerdy.

While many people believe this movie is not worth the time and use the low grossing as evidence to back that up, I believe it is an excellent coming of age story. It shows us how children deal with death and reminds us that sometimes it takes a tragedy to open our eyes. It may be a little mundane to use a child as the center for a coming of age drama to give the audience a lesson in how to deal with death, but this movie does a really good job of waking us up. I cried and I laughed. Each time I cried it was real and sad, but each time I laughed it was heartfelt and even if for a fraction of a second that laugh made me happy. It is hard to find a quality movie that is able to invoke such an emotional response.

It's 5th grade at a private all-boys Catholic school in Philadelphia for Joshua A. Beal. He is still dealing with the death of his beloved grandfather (Robert Loggia). There are his parents (Dana Delany, Denis Leary) and his older sister (Julia Stiles). David is his rebellious best friend. Sister Terry (Rosie O'Donnell) and Sister Sophia (Camryn Manheim) are two of his teachers. Joshua has questions about God and goes on a search.

Let's be real. I was intrigue with this because of M. Night Shyamalan before he made Sixth Sense. I've never heard of it. It's a bit slow. There are some good bits but it struggles to build up speed. His search for God needs to be more pronounced and defined. Why not make it his assignment? The assignment could be writing about someone they don't know and he decides that he doesn't know God. Quite frankly, it would be a great Christian movie concept. I do like the rescue, the speech, and finally the twist reveal. It would help if the premise has more narrative drive.