Perhaps it’s an indictment of the sad state of Hollywood action movies, but 58-year old Liam Neeson is one of the most credible action stars around at the moment. His latest film, Unknown, immediately brings to mind the 2008 sleeper Taken with its terse one-word title and European setting.
Though not quite a spiritual successor to Taken, Unknown has a few of its virtues in common, starting with another butt-kicking performance from Neeson. It’s an enjoyable, tasteful and competent conspiracy thriller that you’ll probably forget as soon as you walk out of the cinema.
In Unknown, Neeson stars as Dr Martin Harris, an American scientist who is involved in a motor car accident and separated from his wife Liz (played by January Jones) shortly after arriving in Berlin. He wakes after a four-day coma only to find that his identity has been stolen and that no one seems to know who he is, including his wife. To say more would be to venture into spoiler territory.
Neeson’s performance is perhaps one of the best aspects of the film. With his stoic bearing and a hint of darkness and danger under his immovable features, Neeson is as convincing as he was when he took on human traffickers in Paris in Taken.
Jones and Diane Kruger provide Neeson with able support, though their characters aren’t particularly well developed in the script. There are also some solid supporting performances from European actors. Bruno Ganz — best known as Adolf Hitler in The Downfall — stands out as a world-weary former Stasi operative who agrees to help Martin uncover the truth.
Unknown is a well-made movie with some great action sequences. Though the film isn’t as brutal as the joyously sleazy Taken, the elegantly constructed fight and car chase sequences have a pleasingly visceral feel to them. There’s a sense of bones breaking, blood splashing and metal crunching sadly lacking in many of the outlandish, CGI-heavy set pieces that dominate big-budget films today.
Unknown’s biggest weakness lies in a script that is a bit over-engineered. As masters of the form know — think Alfred Hitchcock or Roman Polanski — a good suspense thriller is only as complicated as it needs to be. No more, no less.
Unknown builds its story on a wobbly edifice of contrivances and coincidences that collapse like a tower of Jenga blocks before the last brick is put in place. Its foundational pieces — the misplaced briefcase, shadowy assassins, the man who has lost his mind or his memory — are laid down with a shaky hand.
Its narrative logic falls apart even if you don’t think about it too deeply. As one small example, it’s hard to buy into a film that rests its plot on the lead character struggling to find a cellphone signal in Berlin. The clumsy and rushed exposition used to explain away some key plot points is hardly convincing.
Despite a story that ties itself up in knots and a running time that is 20 minutes too long, Unknown offers enough thrills to make up for its ludicrous plot. It’s the sort of film that will make for good DVD viewing on a cold Saturday night. — Lance Harris, TechCentral
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