Dr. Martin Harris awakens after a car accident in Berlin to discover that his wife suddenly doesn't recognize him and another man has assumed his identity. Ignored by disbelieving authorities and hunted by mysterious assassins, he finds himself alone, tired and on the run. Aided by an unlikely ally, Martin plunges headlong into a deadly mystery that will force him to question his sanity, his identity, and just how far he's willing to go to uncover the truth.
Genres: Drama, Thriller and Adaptation Running Time: 1 hr. 49 min. Release Date: February 18th, 2011 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sexual content. Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast And Credits
Starring:
Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger
Directed by:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Produced by:
Steve Richards, Sarah Meyer
Liam Neeson’s latter-day renaissance as an unlikely action star should give hope to performers and viewers of a certain age (i.e., over 40) everywhere. While that irrepressible exhibitionist Helen Mirren, born in 1945, continues to inspire legions of AARP members, one discarded garment at a time, Mr. Neeson, a comparative pup born in 1952, is doing much the same, one hard-swinging fist after another.
And so here he is again, racing against time and villainy, this time in “Unknown,†another sleek, preposterously amusing thriller with a single-word title. Like “Taken,†his surprise 2008 hit, this new movie largely banks on the spectacle of Mr. Neeson’s character â€" here, a botanist, Dr. Martin Harris â€" pursuing a much younger woman. In “Taken,†the bait was a kidnapped daughter, while in “Unknown†it’s a blank-eyed wife (the suitably cast January Jones). After landing in Berlin and driving to their hotel, the doctor and missus are separated when he realizes that he has left his briefcase at the airport. Hopping in a cab driven by a looker, Gina (Diane Kruger), he soon ends up in a bumper-to-bumper pileup that leads to a dunk in a river and black bags of trouble.
The director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan,†a hoot of a horror flick) knows his way around multilane roadways, and he and his stunt team squeeze in a few slick car chases, including a well-choreographed showdown between a cab and an S.U.V. during which the two vehicles turn in perfectly synched formation, arcing across the asphalt like skaters dancing on ice. Such moments are why movies like “Unknown†exist, even if they end up only emphasizing the story’s frayed and loose ends, its lapses in logic: How did everyone learn to drive like a Formula One racer? Where are the police? And why is the German Ms. Kruger playing a Bosnian in a movie set in Berlin?
It’s no wonder that Martin, who wakes up in a hospital without any identification days after his brush with the big sleep, looks baffled. Fear and jagged memories of his wife drive him out of the hospital and into an increasingly tangled, sticky web, one in which his wife doesn’t seem to know him, and neither does anyone else. Looking suitably bewildered, Mr. Neeson makes a sturdy hub for such confusion. He’s a fine lead, even if all his huffing and puffing pales next to the silkily insinuating conversation between two sidemen, wonderfully played by Bruno Ganz (as a former Stasi agent) and Frank Langella (as Martin’s colleague), who, inside a small, dingy office and without throwing a single punch, show you how it’s done.
That scene suggests that Mr. Collet-Serra has more to offer than stop-and-start action, if only he and the story would calm down. Other dividends include the German actor Sebastian Koch (the writer in “The Lives of Othersâ€), who pops up as a sympathetic scientist, Bressler, one more piece in the puzzle. Having traveled to Berlin for a conference, only to lose his papers and wife, Martin reaches out to Bressler for help. In the middle of all this Aidan Quinn materializes as Martin’s doppelgänger, a kink that inspires a rare moment of levity when the two men first step on and then repeat in unison the same lines. And then they’re off again, running and driving and occasionally pausing to throttle a neck.
“Unknown†is based on a 2003 French novel by Didier van Cauwelaert, published in English as “Out of My Head,†though its truer inspirations are those films noirs of the 1940s and ’50s in which an Everyman wakes up with a lump on his head and asks the great essential question, Who am I? That same existential cry fuels the first “Bourne†movie (2002), which “Unknown†apes in large and small ways, from its international setting to its friendly, tag-along Euro-chick; conspiratorial web; and paranoia. Yet despite its A-movie aspirations, as the chases continue and the plot holes widen, “Unknown†quickly settles into the familiar B-movie comfort zone, with mano-a-mano fights, missed phone calls, running and more running and a twist that keeps twisting until it breaks.
“Unknown†is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). A near drowning, flipped cars and murder.
Liam Neeson’s latter-day renaissance as an unlikely action star should give hope to performers and viewers of a certain age (i.e., over 40) everywhere. While that irrepressible exhibitionist Helen Mirren, born in 1945, continues to inspire legions of AARP members, one discarded garment at a time, Mr. Neeson, a comparative pup born in 1952, is doing much the same, one hard-swinging fist after another.
The director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan,†a hoot of a horror flick) knows his way around multilane roadways, and he and his stunt team squeeze in a few slick car chases, including a well-choreographed showdown between a cab and an S.U.V. during which the two vehicles turn in perfectly synched formation, arcing across the asphalt like skaters dancing on ice. Such moments are why movies like “Unknown†exist, even if they end up only emphasizing the story’s frayed and loose ends, its lapses in logic: How did everyone learn to drive like a Formula One racer? Where are the police? And why is the German Ms. Kruger playing a Bosnian in a movie set in Berlin? 
That scene suggests that Mr. Collet-Serra has more to offer than stop-and-start action, if only he and the story would calm down. Other dividends include the German actor Sebastian Koch (the writer in “The Lives of Othersâ€), who pops up as a sympathetic scientist, Bressler, one more piece in the puzzle. Having traveled to Berlin for a conference, only to lose his papers and wife, Martin reaches out to Bressler for help. In the middle of all this Aidan Quinn materializes as Martin’s doppelgänger, a kink that inspires a rare moment of levity when the two men first step on and then repeat in unison the same lines. And then they’re off again, running and driving and occasionally pausing to throttle a neck. 
“Unknown†is based on a 2003 French novel by Didier van Cauwelaert, published in English as “Out of My Head,†though its truer inspirations are those films noirs of the 1940s and ’50s in which an Everyman wakes up with a lump on his head and asks the great essential question, Who am I? That same existential cry fuels the first “Bourne†movie (2002), which “Unknown†apes in large and small ways, from its international setting to its friendly, tag-along Euro-chick; conspiratorial web; and paranoia. Yet despite its A-movie aspirations, as the chases continue and the plot holes widen, “Unknown†quickly settles into the familiar B-movie comfort zone, with mano-a-mano fights, missed phone calls, running and more running and a twist that keeps twisting until it breaks. 
