Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
3/4/11
One problem with going to
the movies a lot is that you tend to see the same trailers over and over
again. And before the Liam Neeson thriller Unknown finally
opened, I'd seen its trailer well over a dozen times. During one
of those viewings, something clicked in my head and I figured out the solution
to its central “what's going on here?” mystery. So, I didn't get
the same sensation of playing along that most viewers will, but that solution
isn't a bad one, and the movie itself is rock-solid, an excellent showcase
for Neeson's remarkable late-career breakout as an action hero. Even
if you see its revelations coming, Unknown pays fair and tells an
interesting tale with lots of nice little touches along the way.
But the big draw is Neeson, and those who fell in love with his bone-crunching
talents in Taken will not be disappointed.
Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson)
and his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) arrive in Berlin for a scientific
conference at the invitation of Professor Bressler (Sebastian Koch), whose
groundbreaking work is underwritten by progressive Middle Eastern leader
Prince Shada (Milo Hamada). Martin forgets a briefcase at the airport
and has to take a cab back. A freak accident sends the vehicle flying
off a bridge and after the driver, Gina (Diane Kruger) saves his life,
she flees the scene. Martin wakes up in the hospital, where his doctor
(Karl Markovics) warns him about the dangers of brain injury and the likelihood
that he'll regret checking himself out of the hospital. But he needs
to find his wife, and makes a beeline to the hotel, where he finds her,
Bressler... and Dr. Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn). Elizabeth claims
no knowledge of any other husband, and Martin B has plenty of ID and family
photos, while our Martin lost all of his in the accident. Bedeviled
by hotel security chief Herr Strauss (Rainer Bock), he must tread lightly
around the only people he knows in Berlin, but soon tracks down Gina, who
reluctantly agrees to help him. First stop: the the office
of Ernst Jurgen (Bruno Ganz), a former Stasi agent who begins piecing together
the truth with a call to Martin's stateside colleague Rodney Cole (Frank
Langella). And just in case anyone thinks Martin is simply a confused
man with brain damage, there is the small matter of the people trying to
kill him.
In the post-Sixth Sense
era, we see stories like Unknown bungled all the time because the
movies only care about The Twist. But Unknown actually has
a story to tell, one which only comes into sharper focus once we know what
writers Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell (adapting Didier Van Cauwelaert's
novel Out of My Head) have up their sleeves. Director Jaume
Collet-Serra knows how to stage an action sequence, but equally important
is how well he lets his actors have their moments as characters.
The scenes between Martin A and Herr Strauss are delightful, the lived-in
world of Gina's dingy apartment building does as much to develop her character
as Kruger herself, and a splendid scene between Ganz and Langella late
in the game is so detailed and allowed to take its sweet time so much you
might imagine they're the stars of the movie.
Because Liam Neeson is a
physically imposing guy with world-class acting chops, it shouldn't surprise
us to learn that he makes a terrific action hero, but just how terrific
has kinda come out of nowhere. Unknown is an ideal vehicle
for such a transitioning thespian, because <SPOILER ALERT!> Martin
Harris really is a man of science and one of action sharing a body. <END
OF SPOILER> It's easy to believe he gets so quickly overwhelmed by
the crazy situation in which he finds himself, but equally easy to believe
that he keeps finding a way out of each jam the forces of evil deposit
in his path. Quinn makes an exceptional fiend, although Jones is
a bit too restrained to embrace all the aspects of her character.
Kruger is her usual charismatically feisty self, although it's ironic that
she finds herself in a movie that shot in her native Germany and she has
to play a Bosnian character. Not an indignity on par with Nicolas
Cage asking if her German accent was Pennsylvania Dutch in National
Treasure, but still....
*****SPOILER ALERT!
READ NO FURTHER UNTIL YOU'VE EITHER SEEN UNKNOWN OR DON'T PLAN TO*****
What gives this twisty thriller the gas to make it past the finish line
is that once its twists are all on the table, the story is actually invigorated
rather than deflated. Pondering who we would be if we didn't remember
any of who we'd been is an obsession of any society that believes in the
soul, and I appreciated that Unknown also believes in the capacity
for change. An identically-titled and themed 2006 movie with Jim
Caviezel and Greg Kinnear imploded once its secrets were on the table because
it believed that the tie between memories and morality was like a switch,
and having characters revert to their previous state upon remembering who
they were isn't nearly so interesting as what happens here, where Martin
really has to process everything that comes back to him against the things
that happened to him while he didn't remember. Granted, these revelations
are used primarily to kick the third act into Action Hero Liam mode, but
the way they do so is well-considered and surprisingly effective.
Unknown is the rare Twist Movie that gets a second wind from its
big reveal. *****END OF SPOILERS*****
And Liam Neeson does eventually
get around to kicking some serious ass with the assistance of a major explosion
or two. The perfect kind of movie to fill out the off-season schedule,
Unknown is a quality star vehicle that delivers what you expect
and tells its story surprisingly well with a few surprises. At least,
unless you've memorized the trailer, in which case you might see those
coming. |
