Is Liam Neeson’s ‘Unknown’ as good as ‘Taken’?

The last time Liam Neeson starred in an international thriller, the results were beyond enjoyable. Taken, which was released in 2008, was a surprise box-office hit and critical darling. The fast-paced action flick followed Neeson’s desperate journey to find his kidnapped daughter who was on the verge of being sold into a sex-trafficking syndicate.

That was then, this is now.

Now Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra have come together for Unknown, another international thriller, another fast-paced action flick, another desperate journey to find someone. But Unknown is no Taken. The plot is contrived; the characters are mostly uninteresting; and January Jones, from AMC’s Mad Men, offers a wooden performance that is flummoxing.

Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris, a respected biochemist who has just arrived in Berlin with his wife (Jones) to speak at an international conference. When their car arrives at the swanky Hotel Adlon, Martin realizes he’s left an important bag at the airport. Without telling his wife, Martin hails a taxi and heads back onto the streets of Berlin.

It’s only when the taxi nearly causes a head-on collision and plummets off a bridge into the icy waters of the Spree that Martin, for a split second, realizes he’s made a horrible decision. Then, everything goes black.

Our main character wakes up days later in a hospital bed. He’s been in a coma, but he has thankfully survived the accident.

When Martin breaks out of the hospital, against the orders of his doctor, he hightails it back to the Hotel Adlon and his wife. Only thing is that his wife doesn’t recognize him. In fact, his wife is standing next to another man (Aidan Quinn) purporting to be the real Martin Harris.

The premise could make for a good episode of The Twilight Zone (actually, I’m pretty sure that a variation of this theme did make for many good episodes of The Twilight Zone), but as a 113-minute motion picture, it falls under the weight of its own ridiculousness.

Any ounce of thought on the viewer’s part will be enough to pick apart Unknown’s plot. Go on, begin to think. I promise you, it will ruin the movie.

Neeson is his usual fine self. As an actor, there really is no better. He’s able to make great scripts sing with life, and bad scripts seem better. As a man in search of his identity, he balances the role with a frantic earnestness. Along the way, he befriends the female taxi driver who caused the accident (a lovely Diane Kruger), and the two of them try to piece the puzzle together. With Martin’s wife out of the picture, there needed to be a proper love interest, right?

Frank Langella has the thankless role of Rodney Cole, a person from Martin’s past who shows up to put everything in perspective. His addition to the movie is pure convenience; there were loose ends that needed to be tied, and he ties them up with glee.

Honestly, I would forgive and forget just about everything in Unknown, but one performance proved so grating that it amplified the contrivances of the plot points: January Jones simply can’t sell the role of Elizabeth Harris. There’s nothing mysterious, sexy or purposeful about her approach to the character. Her line delivery is poor, and she seems picked solely for her looks (this may be a common occurrence for the young actress). One can’t ruin a movie that is inherently bad. But she comes close.

The screenplay by Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell is based on a novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert. I’m not surprised to find that Unknown had a first life in the literary form. It definitely could work on the written page, but as a movie there are too many visual reminders of the preposterous characters and far-fetched storyline.

If Taken was a first-place winner, Unknown will have to settle for the bronze.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Unknown

• 2011

• Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

• Written by Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell; based on the book, Out of My Head, by Didier Van Cauwelaert

• Starring Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Aidan Quinn and Frank Langella

• Running time: 113 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sexual content

• Rating:

• Click here to purchase Unknown on DVD.