Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
2/6/09
As
shown off a little in my blog, I’m
a big fan of the art of Haiku, which requires one to make a poetic point
in three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Haiku requires the author
to make their own personal artistic statement within a rigid stylistic
construct, not unlike movie genres, which impose a strict set of narrative
expectations upon filmmakers. What separates a great genre movie
from an awful one is a set of relatively small but pivotal choices in casting,
setting of tone and the precise filling-in of narrative blanks. Taken,
the umpteenth Luc Besson production in which an indestructible hero tears
Paris apart looking to right wrongs done to him and/or innocent civilians
is exceptionally good at all three. Start with a stellar cast led
by no less than Liam Neeson, add a particularly noble set of heroes and
unspeakable villains and deliver it all with a tone so unflinchingly serious
and intense that the movie never once lets on how much fun it knows we’re
going to have watching it and you have a first-rate revenge fantasy thrill
ride.
Bryan
Mills (Liam Neeson) has retired from his career as a CIA “Preventer” to
try to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).
Against his expert advice, she takes a trip to Europe to follow U2 on tour
along with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy). Their first stop is
Paris, where the two girls blissfully disregard all the precautions Bryan
proposed, including calling him when they get there. So, he gives
Kim a ring and while she’s on the phone, their apartment is attacked.
Turns out kidnappers have been scouting them since Amanda chatted up a
guy (Nicholas Giraud) who shared their cab. Bryan immediately goes
into action, gathering information on the phone even as she’s grabbed and
giving the perpetrators a blistering warning about the consequences they’ll
face if they don’t let her go. The crooks, a bunch of Albanian white
slavers, don’t pay heed and so, within hours, he’s on a plane to touch
base with former colleague Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin). From
there, those in the Parisian slave trade had best get their affairs in
order, because Bryan Mills will burn the City of Lights to the ground if
that’s what it takes to get his daughter back.
Taken
follows a simple but effective formula popularized by the 80’s hit Commando:
let some scurvy bastards kidnap the daughter of a Killing Machine action
hero and then stand back while lethal payback ensues. But it’s entirely
possible that the formula’s never been run with an actor as good as Neeson
in the lead role and his presence really kicks the movie up a couple notches.
Bryan Mills may know every lethal trick in the book and have a very low
tolerance for the foibles of the average teen, but he’s a ridiculously
nice guy and the star makes us buy all those character traits joining together
to form an old-school homicidal sweetheart we can’t help but root for.
When the requisite early scenes show us how desperately he wants to make
up for lost time with Kim and how much of an uphill battle that is, it
only adds fuel to Neeson’s fire once it’s time to switch gears and kick
ass. Writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (showing unusual discipline
and focus after some bloated recent efforts like Transporter
3) wisely take their time setting up that relationship, along with
ones with his ice queen ex (Famke Janssen) and some old espionage buddies,
that make Bryan’s world unusually lived-in for this kind of flick.
They’ve also found a perfect Kim in Grace, who Lost fans like myself
can tell you is great at affecting a needy glow perfect for characters
who’re treated better by the world at large than they probably deserve.
Kim gets into this mess by making every stupid teenager mistake in the
book, but I never held it against her because she’s just so sweet and adorable.
With
the characters and crisis in place, Taken is free to cut loose with
the mayhem, and does it ever! I think we can all agree that once
he’s decided to kidnap girls off the street and sell them into slavery,
a movie character has forfeited his right to A)live or B)die painlessly,
and that’s not a small point. You can argue that Bryan should take
more time out from his crusade to help the other victims he comes across
(I like to think he placed a lot of off-screen anonymous tips to the police),
but you’ve got to be a pretty strong opponent of the cinematic death penalty
to suggest these fiends get anything other than what’s coming to them.
Director Pierre Morel wisely keeps the tone deadly serious without getting
too deeply into the grim minutia of the slave trade business. He
doesn’t need to insert comic relief or cues to laugh or cheer because the
story’s actually doing its’ job: hit one of those villains with a
bus and any red-blooded American crowd is gonna go bananas.
Taken
does all you can ask of this sort of movie: it delivers the goods.
And when the former Oskar Schindler kicks ass with the best of them, it
sure beats the hell out of running this formula with a martial arts champion
or retired athlete. And the filmmakers fill in those pesky narrative
blanks with exciting action, relatable characters and real emotions.
Fans of seeing evil doers get what they gots coming can’t ask for more. |
