Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Rachel is a divorced single mother whose bad day gets even worse. She's running late to drop her son off at school when she honks her horn impatiently at a fellow driver during rush-hour traffic. After an exchange of words, she soon realizes that the mysterious man is following her and her young son in his truck. A case of road rage quickly escalates, at horrifyingly psychotic proportions, into full-blown terror as Rachel discovers the psychopath's sinister plan for revenge. He is single-mindedly determined to teach her a deadly lesson.
Unhinged is a lean, efficient road-rage thriller that delivers exactly what it promises but little more. The plot is formulaic — a single mother hunted by an unstoppable psychopath — with thin characterization and contrived escalations. Russell Crowe commits physically to his menacing role and is the film's biggest asset, but the supporting cast is serviceable at best. Cinematography is competent and functional, capturing the chase sequences with adequate tension. The film offers virtually nothing new to the stalker-thriller genre, recycling familiar beats without a distinctive voice. The ending resolves predictably with no real surprises. It's a passable popcorn thriller but a largely by-the-numbers entry in a well-worn subgenre.