Considering that Unknown stars the new-and-improved-awesome-action-hero Liam Neeson, it was pretty anticipated by most fans (incuding myself), even if the trailers explained little about the movie and weren’t very widely shown. What the trailers did suggest, however, was that the audience would be treated to another action-packed, ass-kick-fest, starring Neeson as the rugged, sexy, and heroic protagonist. While Neeson was, indeed, sexy and rugged, I wouldn’t go so far as to use the words “heroic” or “action-packed” to describe much of anything in this movie, as Unknown (now also known as Taken 2: Hey, Somebody Stole My Memory) unfortunately falls into the category of same-old-story.
Beware of spoilers beyond this point!
The film starts with Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Liz (January Jones) heading into Berlin for a biochemistry conference, where Harris will speak on his creation of corn that can grow in any climate, and is completely resilient to pests and storms. This discovery is funded by a controversial Saudi prince, will be available to everyone, and is expected to help end world hunger. But plans are changed slightly when Harris realizes he has left his briefcase (filled with all of his research) behind at the airport, and, leaving Liz to check into the hotel, must return to fetch it. He boards a cab driven by pretty, young Gina (Diane Kruger), but the return trip is cut short when an accident causes the cab to swerve out-of-control and land in a river. Harris suffers a blow to the head, resulting in immediate loss-of-consciousness, but Gina manages to escape the cab and proceed to break through the back windshield and save him.
The film begins to pick up slightly when Harris awakens in the hospital, his memories fuzzy but acute, and chooses to leave his doctor’s care against medical advising. When he returns to the hotel, desperate to rejoin his wife, he discovers that another man (Aidan Quinn) has taken his place by her side at the BioConference, and she claims that she has no idea who Harris is. Things become heated between Harris and the impostor until hotel security is summoned; when the impostor shows identification proving that he is Dr. Martin Harris, security escorts the ‘original’ Harris from the premises.
From here, the film surrounds Harris trying to convince his former taxi driver, Gina, that he is exactly who he says he is, and is being set-up. He attempts to get in contact with a collegue in America, Rodney Cole (Frank Langella), who will surely affirm his identity. After leaving him a message and convincing Gina to join him, Harris obtains the help of retired-German-Secret-Police member, Jurgen (Bruno Ganz), who believes his story and begins seeking proof to help him. In between these plot-points are light action scenes, including a fight scene between Liam Neeson and several mysterious intruders attempting to kill him and his newly-acquired female accomplice. My initial question through this scene was: “Um, since when can a botanist almost-effortlessly kick the crap out of a bunch of obviously-trained killers?” From here, the movie becomes incredibly predictable and ho-hum. There are worthy action scenes and Neeson and Kruger deliver believable and relateable performances, but the plot is thin and poorly-sequenced. Scenes and dialogue that are meant to be serious and add to the drama of the moment come off as hokey, and often even comical (so much so that the audience was laughing pretty raucously at sincerely inappropriate times).
Even Liam Neeson’s epic awesomeness is unable to salvage any real credibility throughout. Explosions, sporadic hand-to-hand fights, noir-ish secret codes, and Memento-esque memory fogs are peppered throughout for good measure, but believability is hard to come by. January Jones is pretty boring and deadpan in her performance; and even if this was intentional, it definitely didn’t add anything to the movie, and left the audience unimpressed with an otherwise good actress. Frank Langella plays the exact same character he played in The Box. No, really. I swear – it is the same. Freaking. Dude. If it weren’t fitting for his role, it would probably be annoying.
But, the fact does remain that Liam Neeson is an amazing action star, even in a less-than-stellar film. He delivers a solid performance, nearly identical to his role in Taken, although not nearly as intense or concentrated. He doesn’t disappoint in Unknown, and the action scenes (though few and far between) are entertaining, but it is definitely no Taken. And if you’re like me, anticipating a movie that is even close to that level of edge-of-your-seat action, you will be pretty disappointed and fidgety for two hours.
ComicsOnline gives Unknown 2.5 briefcases-of-life out of 5.
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