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UNKNOWN (2011)

Liam Neeson aced it with 2008’s surprise hit Taken. He kicked ass trying to save his daughter. Here he is saving his identity. But he doesn’t really kick ass.

Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) arrives in Berlin for a conference with his wife (the lovely January Jones) (Looking not as stunning as she does in Mad Men). He gets into an accident and after waking up from a coma, discovers that someone else is posing as him. Even his wife does not recognize him! That's as gripping as it can get. The mood is tense, the pitch is perfect, it hits all the right notes for the solid first half an hour or so. The surprises keep you hooked till the second act, on the level of interest. It throws too many plot points our way and the notes go berserk. While the premise of this one is more interesting than Taken, it is a lesser movie. There the emotional involvement (it being a father-daughter story) is more. Here, it somewhere gets lost. The emotional involvement comes with: 1. Empathizing with the protagonist. 2. His relationships with other characters. (which is true for almost every other movie on this planet, but come come, don’t nitpick now). I didn’t know who to side with? Him and Mrs. Harris (Jones)? Or him and Gina (Diane Kruger) the woman who helps him discover his true identity? It’s terribly misleading.

(SPOILER AHEAD)

But what bothered me the most was the change of character. How could an assassin who spent a large part of his life killing people, suddenly have a change of heart? This basic character incongruity made the film lose it’s hold on me.

(END OF SPOILER)

Another problem I had was that with films like these, we need one key element. That is element is “Why is this happening to him?” The thing that makes us empathize with the character, feeling that “it could happen to me too”. There are several movies that come to mind; Frantic (1988) directed by Roman Polanski is one. If you haven’t seen it, dig it up and watch it now! In Frantic also, an American couple arrives in a European city to attend a conference. Wife is taken away from him and a young woman from that city helps him. The structure of Unknown is very much similar (the club, the rooftop, the subway etc.). Harrison Ford had aced such roles before Liam Neeson. He even did similar roles in Witness (1985) and The Fugitive (1993). 

Obviously, these thrillers are based on Hitchcock’s thrillers. While the protagonists in the Hitchcock thrillers didn’t really “kick butt”, North by Northwest (1959) and The 39 Steps (1935) are the best examples of a fantastical thriller like this. What makes them work? We connect with the lead characters that goes on this bizarre hunt. The love stories work, the absurd situations are hardly ever questioned. As a Hollywood thriller, Unknown is effective, has many reasons to work, but it isn’t more than that.The fault probably does not even lie with director Jaume Collet-Serra who did better work in Orphan (2009).

While I complain why it didn’t work and what went wrong, I must add that I was not bored for a single second. It was entertaining from start to finish. It has a terrific cast of fine actors like Diane Kruger, Bruno Ganz, Frank Langella and January Jones. It most definitely is not a bad movie, it is a good one. Just not a very good one. One more Liam Neeson thriller please!

Rating: *** out of *****

Side note: You must have noticed I didn’t use words like flaws and plot-holes. I rarely do. The Sixth Sense (1999) for example, has several plot-holes, but I was still surprised by the ending and I go back to the movie because of its strong emotional core. In films, which are not seeped in reality, you are bound to find flaws and plot-holes, but that is not what makes a movie bad. To me, those words sound more pedantic than observant.

Recommendations:

North by Northwest (1959)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Frantic (1988)

The Bourne Trilogy (2002/04/07)

Taken (2008)

Anything For Her (2008) (Hollywood remake – The Next Three Days, 2010)