7 Ups & 4 Downs From Russell Crowe's Unhinged

6. Relatively Brief Exposition

Director Derrick Borte deserves a pat on the back for refusing to add in redundant exposition for every single character. Any that is given is brief enough that the frantic pace of Unhinged is unaffected - for example, characters like Fred, his girlfriend and Rachel's lawyer Andy have enough of an intro to make them relevant.

That's preferable to a film that was two hours for the sake of it.

By shaving off a good 25-30 minutes of character and world building, Borte kept things motoring along and ensured that Unhinged never once got boring. Needless subplots could have ruined the flow of the film here, but simplicity is a real asset to Unhinged and that's great to report.

Rest assured that you won't have to suffer through 15-year old Kyle's fractured relationship with a distant father figure or the ins and outs of Fred restarting his online business. Those side issues are given only a few lines of context so they mean something later, and that's a good thing.