Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Janus Metz Pedersen
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Ludwig
In our current era of regular mass casualty events, the Unabomber almost seems like a quaint figure (the average school shooter would be disappointed with Ted Kaczynski's relatively meagre body count). But in the '90s, in the days before Columbine and 9/11, he was a big deal. Between 1978 and 1995 Kaczynski claimed three lives and injured 23 others with a series of bombs, most of which were sent through the mail. Unlike his spiritual soulmates the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the original World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef (both of whom Kaczynski would later befriend in prison - now there's a movie!), Kaczynski's motivations were ideologically incoherent, a series of ramblings outlined in a manifesto published by the New York Times that would ultimately lead to his capture.
Director Janus Metz Pedersen's Unabomber plays out across two separate timelines. In 1958 we find Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay) as a 16-year-old maths prodigy studying at Harvard. There he comes to adore Psychology Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe), who encourages Kaczynski to join his exclusive debate team. Despite the disapproval of his parents, whose permission he requires due to his young age, Kaczynski fakes his mother's signature and enrols. The "debate" is actually a smokescreen for a cruel, CIA-funded experiment to see if subjects can be psychologically "broken."
The second timeline is a heavily fictionalised detailing of the final weeks leading to Kaczynski's capture. Shailene Woodley plays a fictional FBI agent, Joanne Miller, in similar fashion to the invented protagonist Mark Wahlberg played in the Boston marathon bombing drama Patriots Day. The work of presumably dozens of agents is distilled down to this one Clarice Starling-esque character, who follows up a tip-off that the rest of the agency bafflingly dismisses.
There is no sense that the first timeline feeds into the second. It's almost like watching two different movies cut together. If the film's intention is to have us believe that Kaczynski might have turned out differently were it not for Professor Murray's experiments, then Tremblay has been badly miscast. The young actor plays Kaczynski as though he were a psycho all along, all coiled up and ready to spring. We're left in little doubt that Kaczynski's misanthropy would have led to his psychotic actions regardless of his college experience.
It's no surprise that the always reliable Crowe is the MVP here. He's convincingly charming enough to make us understand why a troubled outsider like Kaczynski might adore him, but he's also palpably sinister when we learn his true motivations. But we mostly only see Murray through Kaczynski's eyes. We're given little insight into how the professor felt about his experiments. Murray is aided by his research partner Christiana Morgan, played like a stock femme fatale by an icy Annabelle Wallis. A more interesting take might have focussed more on Murray and Morgan and how they reconciled their despicable actions in the name of serving science and their country.
As the lead of the other timeline, Woodley does a serviceable job with a nondescript character. This could have been a gripping procedural in the mould of David Fincher's Zodiac, but the movie picks up at the point where all the investigating has already occurred. Again, there is a secondary character who deserves more attention in Kaczynski's brother David (Matthew Kevin Anderson). The film isn't interested in David's decision to turn in his own flesh and blood; he's simply reduced to a convenient plot point here.
Once again we're subjected to "Netflixvision," that dreary grey pall now associated with the streamer's own productions. Unabomber is the very definition of a TV movie, one that knows the public's fascination with true crime will guarantee it an audience on a platform that has become increasingly associated with such ghoulish content. It's a shame the movie fails to give that audience anything to chew on.
Unabomber is on Netflix from September 25th.
