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By Simon Jago
Liam Neeson is certainly making a niche for himself in the action/thriller genre. His role in 'Taken' was a complete success and since then it appears the world has a Neeson shaped blood lust for brutal revenge killing sprees. It wasn't long before the marketing team behind Unknown realised this and began actually selling the film on the premise that it was similar to 'Taken'. The DVD covers are so similar that even Liam himself probably doesn't know the difference. However, all comparison aside, Unknown is not 'Taken', and unfortunately not as good.
PLOT SYNOPSIS
Liam Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris, a biochemist on his way to Berlin, Germany to give a seminar at an energy conference. Joined by his sexy wife Elizabeth Harris (January Jones) everything appears to be fine until a small series of events lead to Martin Harris losing his identification and being involved in a car accident. Saved by his cab driver Gina (Diane Kruger), Martin Harris awakes from a coma to find that his identity is being questioned. No one believes who he is, there is another person who everyone believes is Dr. Martin Harris and worst of all, his wife fails to recognise him.
The story then becomes a Thriller/Mystery as a resilient Martin fails to give up on the life he cherishes so deeply. Injured by the car accident he only has selective memories but it's enough to begin his search for the truth. As the mystery unfolds Martin discovers some shocking revelations about the truth to his purpose in Berlin.
It's nice to see middle age not stopping Liam Neeson from playing hard as nails action roles, but there comes a point where the believablity becomes questionable. In this film Dr. Martin Harris appears to be just that little bit too good at kicking arse and avoiding death. I found that after the climactic twist near the end, I no longer cared what happened to Martin Harris, and almost wished this film had remained unknown to me.
RATING
Unfortunately Unknown just took itself too seriously and needed to be a bit more trashy in order to make all the action work. My view, just watch 'Taken' instead. 2 and a half stars out of 5.
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