Neeson Month: Mini Review - Unknown

So, what was this movie again?

Oh yeah, it’s Neeson Month

And today we’ll be looking at Unknown

That one doesn’t have Liam Neeson in it

Better. Unknown was released in 2011, it made $136m at the box office, a modest profit on its $40m budget. Critically it holds 55% on rotten tomatoes, with an average 5.6/10, so mixed reviews I think. But what do I think. Well, here are my thoughts

We start with Martin Harris (Neeson) and his husband Liz (January Jones) arriving in Berlin to see the sights but Martin soon discovers he left his briefcase at the airport, on the way back he’s involved in a car accident and has recollection issues. He returns to the hotel to discover someone else named Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn) is seeing his wife and has usurped his identity. Now, the race is on for him to discover why this has happened and evade the inevitable crew of people trying to kill him.

You know something, the premise is fantastic but the execution is flawed. The idea could be done of someone clinging onto false memories of who they are, trying to piece things together given limited information is in itself a great movie that should be made.

Unfortunately, that’s not what this movie is. This is an action movie, so we’ve got to hit the generic action movie story beats. So, Martin Harris is an undercover name taken by our lead to infiltrate a conference run by a scientist with a new famine-resistant crop that could eliminate world hunger and he’s funded by a Prince who knows once the oil runs out, this project could make billions. Their intention is to blow up the hotel using a bomb planted there 3 months ago to do so, taking the Prince and the scientist and leaving the media to think that the Prince, who has had multiple attempts on his life, was the target rather than the scientist. Martin’s accident caused him to believe his cover but upon going missing his backup was placed in and he was marked for death.

I know this is spoiler territory but I do need to point out how dumb this is. They have several meetings with the scientist, why not slip him a drug that makes it look like he had a heart attack? Hell, why not use proper disguises so you could slip away without being traced? Why doesn’t the Prince have more security? How do you know the bomb won’t accidentally be discovered in the 3 months? If Martin and his partner have been married 5 years, why did you have Liz look like a completely different person in the initial visit? Why doesn’t this master assassination agency have backup plans in case the bomb fails?

So yeah, the basis of the plot is Martin, having lost his memory, running from people tracking him down and allying with the only person who might know something. Plus, there’s a cool car chase. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it’s f*cking Jason Bourne. By the time of production, Bourne 3, aka the second Bourne clone had been released already.

OK, so the bad guys there’s one named Smith and another named Jones. Congratulations, you’ve done a Smith and Jones joke in 2011. One looks a bit like Ashton Kutcher, except he’s probably a better actor.

We also have Cole, who Martin remembers as an old friend but turns out to be anything but. His death is probably the silliest of the bunch. His van is pushed over the edge of a car park and explodes, unless the van was packed with dynamite the explosion is ludicrously big.

Gina (Diane Kruger) is probably the most interesting character in the movie, she gets a higher kill count than Martin, when it comes to main villains at least, she’s smart, she can drive but she’s an illegal immigrant and did put Martin in this situation in the first place. Their love story is a little bit too much in the background but it’s enough to make it feel believable that it’s possible they end up together in the end. Her family were killed in Bosnia, just FYI

Ernst Jürgen (Bruno Ganz) is a Private Detective who once served in the East German special forces, and is proud of it. He is an interesting character, especially with his reaction to finding out what was really going on. He takes one for the team and kills himself rather than give up any information. His noble sacrifice shall be remembered

It’s a movie with interesting concepts and some good performances, but it’s let down by generic plot-threads holding the movie together.

Rating 60/100