Review: UNKNOWN - Entertaining, 'Silly Fun' Euro-Thriller

rating: 3

Liam Neeson cuts an unlikely figure as an action hero. The Irishman is not exactly what you might call a towering monument of machismo like Sly Stallone. Nor is he a male wish fulfilment figure and sex object like Tom Cruise. He isn't even a trash-talking everyman a la Bruce Willis. Yet what he has that those talents arguably lack is gravitas and the air of nobility. He has come to convey a certain purity of intention that has seen him cast as the Greek God Zeus, the mighty Jesus-lion Aslan and a fatherly old Jedi - all roles that require an actor who can embody great power coupled with great wisdom. Lately this de facto respect for Neeson as a screen presence has seen him take on a greater number of tough-guy roles. After starring in the violent 2008 thriller Taken, he went on to lead last year's summer actioner The A-Team and, more recently, registered an effective, impactful cameo in The Next Three Days, which saw him cast as an ex-con with expertise in escaping maximum security American prisons. And so it is that the lanky actor from Country Antrim can now confidently tale the lead role in high-octane Joel Silver produced thriller Unknown without raising too many eyebrows. The set-up is simple. Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) arrives in Berlin with his wife Liz (January Jones) in order to give a presentation at some sort of world bio-science summit/obvious MacGuffin, only to end up in a car crash and wake up several days later in a hospital. Upon waking he goes out in search of his wife only to find that she is on the arm of another man who also claims to be Dr. Martin Harris. Without any proof of his identity the authorities think he is suffering delusions as a result of the accident and he is left isolated in a foreign country with no proof of who he is - all the while feeling betrayed and confused. Others think he crazy, but he is determined to prove the truth. The film's Berlin setting was the cause of plenty of appreciation here as it screened out of competition to a lively crowd of critics, who seemed to approve of the extensive use of on-location shooting. Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra - responsible for the 2005 House of Wax remake as well as Goal II: Living the Dream - has to his credit not made a "tourist" movie here, with many of the places we see being obscure and slightly seedy. Action set-pieces also make quite specific use of the city, for example one car chase sequence sees the drivers having to dodge out of the way of an oncoming U-Bahn train (a moment which drew a round of applause from this audience). However this charm is quite locally specific and I doubt many people outside of Berlin will enjoy it quite so much as a result. Instead most audiences will see a by-the-numbers thriller of sudden plot twists, shot at Dutch angles. As is often the case, questions of identity are reduced to lots of shouting "who am I?" accompanied by jarring fragmented and discoloured flashbacks. This is not to say that the twists and turns are not entertaining, but just that they are nothing special or unpredictable. Bruno Ganz is superb as a former Stasi agent ("and proud") who assists Neeson, another lost soul, when no one else will. He is also aided by another outsider, a Bosnian "illegal" played by German film star Diane Kruger in one of the film's less agreeable performances. Meanwhile Jones, as the wife, isn't called upon to do much but be beautiful and enigmatic - neither quality requiring a big stretch from her more rounded Betty Draper persona from TV's Mad Men. Some of the action doesn't make any sense. For instance, why is the hitman who pursues Neeson so insistent on injecting him with a slow acting poison when he is otherwise so at ease with shooting and strangling everyone else who comes between them? But overall the action, along with the dialogue, falls under the heading 'silly fun'. It is consistently entertaining stuff, certainly within the context of a ten day film festival and definitely for someone with knowledge of Berlin. It's serviceable and entertaining so long as (like the cast) you don't take it too seriously, but nothing to get especially excited over. Unknown is released in the U.S. today and March 4th in the U.K.