First off, I’d like to make one thing clear: this movie certainly won’t last long in my memory. Don’t get me wrong, “Unknown” is a very interesting work; it has a highly intruging concept that opens up great many possibilities. Unfortunately, it fell short as a done-and-done again cliché piece which doesn’t and cannot offer the audience anything fresh or innovative. Ten minutes into the movie and I already felt I’ve seen it before. Well, that’s saying something.
Liam Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris, an American scientist traveling to Berlin for a medical summit. An unexpected car accident sends him into a coma for four days. When he wakes up he finds himself stranded in a foreign country with a stolen identity and killers after him. Diane Kruger and January Jones costar, alongside big names such like Frank Langella.
While I was impressed by the early, misleading direction, “Unknown” doesn’t quite fool me. Something about the film feels sloppy. The way the filmmakers ignore essential details to persuade cinematic effect can sometimes be clotting the film and, therefore, leaving it overpopulated with chaos. The visually whirling car chase sequences—yes, there were multiples of them —soon became not only unnecessary, but also extremely tiresome to watch. Introducing a new character 2/3 through the movie is perhaps the worst mistake a director can make, regardless of much of a big shot the actor portraying the character is.
Neeson’s Dr. Harris brings the eager desperation into the character itself, but fails to realize his own importance. From the moment Harris finds out about his situation, he’s stepping onto a roller coaster of purposeless search for something even he doesn’t quite sure what. The aimless action sequences keep colliding with each other to produce new story lines, disregarding the fact that it leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions. By the end of the film, the style changes so much that I almost felt like I was watching a completely different movie than the one from an hour ago. Although the surprise twist towards the end quite neatly ties up some of the loose ends, the overrated build-up and its somewhat perplexing conclusion left much to be desired.
On a positive note, the film kept me mystrified all the way through, and I suppose that’s a good thing. I genuinely cared about the characters, and every twist and turn kept me on the edge of my seat. Mismatched as they may seem, Diane Kruger and Liam Neeson did share a couple of interesting moments. Despite the fairly banal the-other-woman scene with January Jones in the museum, Kruger brings the light into an otherwise gloomy and slightly agitated road-rage thriller that contains too few plausible moments to be thoroughly enjoyable.
Not a memorable piece, but no doubt a solid action thriller, “Unknown” knows how to capture the audience with its appealing concept and unusual direction, as well as its fast-paced cleanness. Certainly not the best Liam Neeson picture, but it’s still worth watching in every way.