Unknown (2011)

As many of you know, I am not the biggest fan of the Liam Neeson action flick from 2009, Taken. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I gave it a decently negative review. That’s because the film was convoluted, unnecessary, and kind of dull. Not here. Two years later, Liam Neeson returns with a high-octane action-thriller that is one of the smartest movies I have seen all year, and that makes me very happy. The film just works. It takes what could have been just a mediocre thriller and twists it into a mind game that leaves you guessing until the end. And I was guessing until the end. I really had no single idea what was going on with that film until it was spelled out in front of me in the end. And it is decently difficult to confuse me that much. Personally, I like Unknown more than I do Inception. And I know a lot of people will disagree with me on that, but I really don’t care. Either way, I probably need to start explaining the film. The plot concerns Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) a man who is in a car crash, then a coma for four days, and then wakes up only to find that he has been replaced. His wife (January Jones) has no idea who he is, and the taxi driver (Diane Kruger) who was driving the car in mention is nowhere to be found. Well, she gets found, and she and Martin try to unravel the mystery that they’re locked up in. The mystery keeps on going on until the end, which is a shocker, which even though it is a bit far-fetched, I can honestly say that I had no clue what was going to happen at the end. And I credit this solely to the writers of the film, Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell, based off of the novel Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert. The writing of the film is just spectacular, and at sometimes, its greatest strength. Now, I have not read Out of My Head, and considering the fact that my book pile is pretty up there right now, I don’t think I will be soon. But either way, while the writing is the strongest strength of the film, it surely isn’t the only one. Liam Neeson is great here, as he is always in every single film he’s ever been in, Diane Kruger is great, and even January Jones is not terrible, which did surprise me. Also, in a smaller but still great performance is Frank Langella, who I saw recently in The Box, which is better than this film, but only slightly. Now, the film isn’t perfect. For one, the film had a green tint throughout it, which kind of bugged me, and also sometimes the plot just gets so far-fetched and convoluted I was just shaking my head wondering what just happened. Unless we have a year that is just flooded with films like Sucker Punch, this movie is not going to make my ‘Top Ten’ list for 2011. But does that mean it isn’t worth checking out? No. If anything else, this is a movie that deserves to be checked out.
8.5/10