If God was in the mood for a really good movie, chances are he'd flip through the listings and make tracks for "Unbreakable." Everything about it has a huge appeal to the Omniscient: the dynamics of Good and Evil, the fundamental questions of Existence, man's helplessness in the face of accidental fate.

For all this, there's not one clergyman in the story, nor are there references to Higher Power, which I'm sure would be cause for anger and disappointment in less worthy pictures. Plus, in between asking the heavy questions, "Unbreakable" inserts protracted and brilliantly executed moments of fright. "OK, you sold me," I can almost hear the Divine Being conceding. "Get me a seat in the Heavenly Screening Room and a giant size box of Cracker Jacks while you're at it."

The Cracker Jacks, however, would be a mistake. "Unbreakable" is not the kind of picture that allows you to focus on the screen while digging for peanuts. It's the kind of picture that leaves your hand buried in the box, growing stickier by the minute, while you sit there with mouth agape, swallowing softly every five minutes. Touchstone Pictures paid director/writer M. Night Shyamalan $5 million for the screenplay alone, the highest such fee in cinema history, and they're saying it was worth every cent. You don't have to take their word for it, but you do want to be prepared.