Written by Heidi Tabor
In a suspenseful action thriller set in Berlin, Liam Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris, who has lost the recollection of his identity after his taxi plummets over a bridge into a river. After a four-day coma, he discovers no one has been looking for him, including his wife, Liz, with whom he is very much in love. In his attempt to figure out who he is, he finds out that Liz, played by January Jones, is with another man who claims that he is Martin Harris, and neither of them have any idea who Neeson is.And so begins the quest for answers that leaves the viewer guessing until the very end.Neeson portrays his typical role, a tough guy on a violent tirade through a European city where he is frequently required to fight for his life. His honesty and general confusion are believable and therefore cause the viewer to wonder if he is either crazy or wrapped up in something terrible. Either way, sympathy emerges as a completely lost character flashes across the screen.Jones does an excellent job as Liz. She is hauntingly picture-perfect in a way that doesn’t raise your attention until the pieces start falling into place at the end of the movie.Diane Kruger plays Gina, the quirky taxi driver who saves Dr. Harris after their watery accident. She serves as the sidekick in Dr. Harris’ pursuit of truth, and though her character has the potential to be very dynamic, Kruger seems somewhat unwilling to intensely dedicate herself to the role.Throughout the movie, disturbingly cold villains pursue Dr. Harris, apathetically killing any number of innocent people who get in their way. Among the worst is played by Olivier Schneider, who serves as the screenplay writer and stunt director for the movie, in addition to his bad guy role. His run-of-the-mill appearance makes it all the more alarming when he grabs a totally uninvolved nurse and snaps her neck without even flinching, simply because she is there. His average clothing and trendy glasses make him seem like someone who would work at the Apple Store rather than as a cold-blooded killer. His very presence is chilling and inspires covered eyes and a knotted stomach as soon as he appears on screen. He is a very effective character to say the least.The director, Jaume Collet -Serra, has directed three previous films: “The Orphan,” “House of Wax,”both of which are horror movies, and “Goal II: Living the Dream,” which is a sports movie. “Unknown” is Collet- Serra’s action-thriller debut and is doing well at the box office. The film grossed $25,620,000 its opening weekend, according to IMDB. The film is rated PG-13 for violence, sequences of action and brief sexual content.The last scenes of the movie are spent heaping large amounts of new information on the viewer for interpretation. It is overwhelming to say the least. Nothing is as it seems in this movie, and the ending is slightly crammed.As things are coming together and explanations are being made, it becomes clear that the ending has enough information to make an entirely separate movie. It is difficult to keep up with the dumping of information that occurs. It seems to be too much in too short of a time period.Harding students who saw this movie probably discovered they could see “Taken” on campus for less than half the price and experience a very similar story line. Nonetheless, “Unknown” provides moviegoers with stomach-wrenching anxiety, a million questions, intense action scenes and the complicated characters they crave in an action thriller.
