Film Review: Unknown

With the release of Unknown, Jaume Collet-Serra grants one of my greatest wishes for this oncoming year. I wished that, regardless of how much the film's content sucked, the film would at the very least look good. Collet-Serra, who last directed the film everyone talked about but nobody actually saw, Orphan, wisely decides to shoot his action-mystery in the gorgeous and beautiful city of Berlin. That's not to praise cinematographer Flavio Labiano, because most of the shots he decides on are rather simple and pedestrian. Any wonder or awe at the look of the film will be based on the wondrous architecture of modern Germany.

But what of the plot, which is the real reason people are going to get into the theater and sit down in their seats. Well it follows man who goes to an environmental summit in Berlin with his wife, and he gets in a car crash, has problems with his memory, and gets back to the hotel to find that his wife had no recollection of him, she's with another man who says he's Martin Harris, and somebody is inexplicably trying to kill him. Altogether, not the best vacation he could've taken, but there's more to it than just that. It turns out that not only is he not the man who he thinks he is, but he's somebody who he'd never want to be.

If you go into this not knowing the twist, it may give your mind a mini-orgasm, but the beautiful and subtle scenery might slip right past you. Ultimately the twist is modest, but it doesn't truly blow your mind away in fire and water. Similarly, the plot and the screenplay isn't exactly a good one. It's ridiculous to almost no end, and if you're not exactly willing to suspend your belief for it, you will walk out disappointed. There's nothing exactly new about this film, and it's not the action packed thrill-ride that Taken was. This is a mystery that happens to get some half-decent action to work with. My last little quibble about the feature is that Liam Neeson doesn't look intimidating in plaid. In fact, nobody looks intimidating in plaid. There's no such thing as a plaid-ass (as in Bad-ass).

Speaking of Neeson, he does a pretty good job with what he's given, but he occasionally looks somewhat chubby and kind of old. Not to mention that whenever he can, he barks out his words like a dog. All the same, it's wicked effective and somewhat hilarious when he says "I remember how to kill you, asshole!". Diane Kruger and January Jones do some pretty good work as the two love interests of our hero, but I can't be the only one who finds it curious that all the 29-year-old hot blonds suddenly have a craving for Neeson. As unlikely as it is, the best actor of the film is Bruno Ganz, playing the man who aids Neeson's character when he needs it most. He steals whatever scene he's in, but it's a modest pleasure. Ultimately, I could never give you a straight face and say that Unknown is a good movie, but I'll be damned if it isn't entertaining and it doesn't look gorgeous.

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