“Unknown”
Written by Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell, based on the book by Dider Van Cauwelaert; Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra; Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz and January Jones. Story: A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.
Seen by Adam and Lars, February 20, 2011
LARS:
Let’s get one thing straight: “Unknown” is a load of hokum. Enjoyable hokum, but hokum nonetheless. The plot revolves around a twist more twisty than a Rubik’s Cube and it is, of course, utter nonsense in every way. But then I felt the same way about e.g. “Wanted”, and I enjoy that movie every time I stumble upon it.
It’s wonderful to see Liam Neeson reinvent himself as an action hero. He was great in “Taken” and he’s wonderful here too. I think the trick with movies as silly as these is to get great actors involved. Actors who can make you suspend enough of your disbelief that you get on board for the ride. Even though Liam Neeson was “Darkman” in the classic Sam Raimi flick, he’s mostly been portraying worthy folks like Schindler, Michael Collins and Kinsey. Now it seems like he’s just here to have a bit of a laugh, even though he’s rumored to be putting on the stovepipe hat and play Abraham Lincoln for Spielberg soon. No, the real Abraham Lincoln, not the fictional bad ass from the recently published gem of a book with the spectacular title “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” (http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Vampire-Seth-Grahame-Smith/dp/0446563080/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298323375&sr=8-1).
“Unknown” reminded me a lot of some other movies, but I couldn’t initially put my finger on it. Sure, there are shades of the “Bourne” movies in there, but the one that it really brought to mind was Wolfgang Peterson’s “Shattered” starring Tom Berenger (what the hell happened to him, by the way?). The premises are nearly identical. As I remember, “Shattered” was a loveable bunch of hokum too. Anyway, “Shattered” is from all the way back in 1991, so of course there isn’t a single executive in Hollywood, who would remember that. It’s so last millennium.
Going back to my earlier thesis that it takes great actors to sell nonsense, the cast of “Unknown” is uniformly excellent. There’s Diane Kruger, who is a no-brainer to cast as someone living in Berlin, where the movie is set, given that she is in fact German. Except in this flick, where she plays an illegal immigrant, obviously. See how cleverly they did the casting? And they have Hitler playing an ex-Stasi agent. My God, the casting agent must have had so much fun! Of course, the Hitler I’m talking abut is Bruno Ganz, who was so magnificent in his portrayal of Hitler in ‘Downfall” that he’ll never quite be able to not elicit the reaction ‘Look, there’s Hitler!’ Which is obviously rather unfortunate for any actor. Add Frank Langella, January Jones and Aidan Quinn to the mix, and you have a cast that could make any movie work.
The Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra isn’t exactly a shoo-in to direct something as clever as this. With the two brain-dead horror flicks “House of Wax” and “Orphan” on his resume, you’d expect little from him. But he’s smart enough to just let the actors do their thing and let the script propel the story forward without getting in the way.
So if you’re looking for a fun way to waste a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than “Unknown”. I mean, you could go see Justin Bieber’s concert movie or any of the idiotic romantic comedies playing at the moment. Thankfully, it looks like March is bringing some good stuff after the drought that was January and February. It’s not a moment too soon.
ADAM:
Sixty percent “Frantic,” twenty five percent “Shattered,” and the rest “The Bourne Identity,” “Unknown” was exactly what I expected and hoped it would be; an action and adrenaline-filled mystery with just the right amount of European seediness and flawed characters. You see this trailer and to a degree you know where it’s going; This is Liam Neesan doing “Taken” again, but this time it’s his identity that’s been taken. What I actually prefer about “Unknown” to “Taken” is the twists, turns and occasional siestas to the action that work their way into the film. “Taken” felt very American to me: hero gets wronged, goes from A to B to C, kills bad guy, roll credits. “Unknown,” feels European in every way; it takes it time to develop fully and somehow it manages to explore tangent and develop interesting characters without getting muddled down. These characters seem tangential from the story, but ultimately work their way right into the meat of what’s happening.
The action, from hand to hand to car chases are first rate and not shot too close, a pet peeve of mine. The performances are all acceptable or better, and the story keeps on chugging along. True, there may be one too far fetched a twist, but it’s never too implausible for our minds to handle, especially considering the films most of us endure the rest of the year.
More than anything else, the film’s seedy personality is what I liked the best. It really did remind me of “Frantic,” the Polanski take on the Hitchcockian formula with Harrison Ford at his near best. I missed the mood Polanski created in that film and “Unknown” felt like an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
