Unknown
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You don't have to apologize for suspecting Unknown to be little more than an unofficial sequel to Taken. Trailers reveal a formidable American (played by Liam Neeson) forced to maneuver the back alleys of an unfamiliar European city in hopes of retrieving a female family member who may or may not have been apprehended by sinister criminals. Strap in for more of the same as a studio tries to replicate a previous film's surprise success, right?
Wrong. While we may have Taken on the brain, Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra and his team of writers are reaching further back than that 2007 hit, paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Frankenheimer, Roman Polanski, and other directors who delighted in running conventional Everymen through the wringer as they lashed out at invisible puppet masters pulling the strings of fate. Unknown will remind you of other thrillers, but it doesn't recycle much, whipping together an original plot that's sufficiently tense and capable of withstanding scrutiny.
Our hero is Martin Harris (Neeson), a Midwestern doctor traveling with his beautiful wife, Elizabeth (January Jones), to Berlin where he's due to lecture at a biotechnology summit. Before he's able to check in to his posh hotel, however, Harris realizes he's left his briefcase -- and his passport -- back at the airport. He hails a cab (driven by Diane Kruger), starts to head back to the terminal, and suffers an unfortunate car accident that lands him in a coma.
So far, so good. When Harris awakes after four days in a German hospital, he immediately seeks out Elizabeth and finds her at the couple's hotel. Only she claims to have no idea who Martin is. Not only that, another man (Aidan Quinn) is telling everyone he is the real Martin Harris. And we start to wonder how hard Neeson clunked his head in the back of that destroyed taxi.
Unknown's formula for success breaks down to 20 percent set up and 80 percent solution. We're willing to buy the film's logic-stretching concept so long as the screenwriters have a legitimate explanation up their sleeve (which they do) and the film executes its thrills in an entertaining fashion (which it does).
Neeson continues to exploit these newfound, generic characteristics that almost downplay his natural ruggedness and innate physicality. Harrison Ford once performed this reverse transformation from Movie Star to Average Joe in such thrillers as Frantic or The Fugitive, and Neeson nicely fills that niche.
Collet-Serra, meanwhile, maintains the mystery of his premise's guessing game without tipping his hand or dragging out the tension. Unknown isn't as action-packed as Taken, though there's a memorable car chase through Berlin's crowded downtown, and a handful of near-deaths for Neeson's confused surgeon. As for the central riddle, Unknown does everything in its power to guard its twist, and when it arrives, Collet-Serra doesn't pummel us with his reveal. Coincidences that existed long enough to sustain the ruse are minimized by the film's eventual explanation, and the conclusion is satisfying. Unknown ends up being taut and tidy, a one-two punch we don't always get from today's thrill rides.
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