Liam Neeson has often been criticized for choosing “easy” action movies for a quick paycheck, thus sacrificing his acting cred. Still, for a man at 58 years of age, to pull off such roles as that of Dr. Martin Harris in “Unknown” in such a believable fashion is no small feat – and he deserves credit for it.
Directed by Catalan director Jaume Collet-Serra, whose previous work includes “House of Wax” and “Orphan,” on a script by Oliver Butcher (based on a novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert), “Unknown” is a stylish blend of any of the “Borne” films and any other spy / amnesia thriller made in recent years.
Liam Neeson is botanist Dr. Martin Harris, and he and his wife Liz (January Jones of “Mad Men” fame) have just flown in to Berlin for an international biotech conference where a major discovery will be unveiled.
They are, by the looks of things, very much in love, which would make sense since they’ve only been married for five years, as the viewers learn within the first minutes of the film.
At the airport, Dr. Harris allows a baggage man to handle his suitcases when getting inside a cab and, this way, his briefcase – the one with all the documents needed for the conference, passport, other ID and money – is left behind.
Once arrived at the hotel, as Liz goes in to check in, Martin realizes he’s missing his briefcase and, without telling his wife, he hops into a cab with the obvious intent of going back to the airport to get it back.
Only minutes have passed since the film opened and this is already the second time that the viewer is asked (or is perhaps forced) to suspend absolutely all disbelief.
For starters, no botanist in town for an important conference would leave his most prized possession – the briefcase – in with the rest of the luggage, because he’d be carrying it all the time.
Secondly, as Harris speeds through Berlin in the cab, he’s baffled to learn (repeatedly) that he can’t get a signal on his phone to call his wife and let her know where he is. Indeed, what are the odds of that happening?
Next up: a refrigerator from a truck in front of the cab (driven by the always surprising Diane Kruger as Gina, a Bosnian illegal immigrant) falls off, a motorcyclist loses control of his bike, the cab swerves, falls off the bridge and crashes into the river.
It’s a very climactic moment and, to director Collet-Sera’s credit, he handles it beautifully. When Dr. Harris wakes up in the hospital (another superbly shot and rendered moment), he’s been in a coma for four days.
Thinking that his wife might already be sick with worry about his whereabouts – after all, it’s been four days – Martin leaves the hospital on his own recognizance and goes to her, only to find out that she has absolutely no idea who he is.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, now there’s another man (Aidan Quinn) claiming to be “the real Dr. Martin Harris,” which puts Neeson’s character on the spot: he has no identification, no money, no one remembers him and, what’s most important, he’s been in an accident in which he hit his head, therefore, he could be delusional for all we know.
The first act of the film works wonderfully because, to put it frankly, there’s no better man than Neeson to play a character who just had the rug pulled from under his feet.
The grim photography and wobbly camera shots work brilliantly with Neeson’s unmistakable manner of giving life to a man who knows he is who he says he is but has no way to prove it to the entire world, and thus comes to question his own identity.
“Going insane is a war between being told who you are and knowing who you are,” he says. Recovering sanity is a war against shady hangers-on, shadows of men who are basically everywhere and can even track you to the pits of hell and attempt to kill you, as Neeson’s Harris soon finds out.
The second and third act are more action-packed than the first one but, unfortunately, they also mark the point where plot holes become so big one could basically drive an SUV through them – even if one was willing to let all credibility go from the very start.
It’s not the type of holes that would make the viewer roll their eyes: it’s their sheer number that overwhelms the film and makes it look as if it’s simply trying too hard. And trying too hard is never good.
By the third act, the viewer already knows what to expect – and they’re probably not even that thrilled about it.
However, that’s not to say that the film is bad: far from it actually, as critics also point out. Aside from Neeson’s brooding, noble and silently menacing take on Dr. Harris, “Unknown” also boasts two other stellar performances.
Bruno Ganz is retired spy Ernst Jürgen, and he brings such wicked humor to all the scenes he’s in it’s almost impossible for the viewers to tear their eyes from him.
Frank Langella is Dr. Rodney Cole (or is he?), a colleague of Harris’ from the university: the scene in which Jürgen and Cole meet is definitely worth the admission fee, if one happens not to be a fan of Liam Neeson action movies.
Diane Kruger and January Jones also make for great additions to the cast, even though their parts are only complimentary to that of Dr. Martin Harris and they’re never really allowed a chance to prove their worth for the camera.
Even with all these flaws and despite some hiccups, “Unknown” works well and will probably not disappoint fans.
“Unknown” runs for 113 minutes, and is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and action. It opened in Germany and the US on February 18, arrives in the UK on March 4, and will conclude its run in Netherlands on April 30.
The Good
Liam Neeson is one of the few actors in Hollywood able to front an action thriller of this type with such credibility. “Unknown” is also brilliantly shot and edited, and the photography is simply amazing. Supporting actors Ganz, Langella and Kruger also deserve recognition for their honest efforts.
The Bad
Despite obvious attempts at making it stick, “Unknown” simply doesn’t, and this becomes apparent by the second act of the film. The plot holes are simply too huge to be ignored and the viewer loses whatever sense of relatability they had with the character – quite a shame, actually.
The Truth
“Unknown” doesn’t plan to be an A-class thriller, because it’s very happy settling for the B-movie title. And it does a brilliant job at it. Fans of a good thriller and / or of Liam Neeson should definitely see it.
Find us on Google+
