Review: Unknown

To be honest, I wasn’t mad about seeing this and expected a dull Taken-style rehash. However, Unknown, although at points clichéd is  largely extremely entertaining and well thought out. The title even feels a bit clichéd – come on, Unknown? Really?  

Liam Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris who awakes from a coma to discover his identity has been stolen, not even his wife believes him. He sets out to prove his identity with the help of taxi driver, Gina (Diane Krueger).
Unknown makes excellent use of it’s stunning of it’s locations, and there’s something quite haunting seeing Harris walk the snowy urban streets of Berlin. Director, Jaume Collet-Serra has stepped his game up from his last few efforts (Orphan and House of Wax) and maintains an exciting and stylish directing style throughout the film. The dialogue does feel like it’s been picked out from a Charles Bronson film from the eighties – with lines like “I don’t remember everything, but I remember how to kick your ass.” However, it serves it’s purpose and adds to the fun of the film. 


The acting is largely pretty decent and Neeson is on good form, despite some problems with maintaining an American accent. At points January Jones feels extremely wooden and unbelievable but luckily doesn’t have too much screen time. Diane Kruger is excellent, she’s one of these actresses we should see a lot of more of – she could play any role given to the likes of Angelina Jolie. The scenes with Bruno Ganz feature among the film’s strongest – he plays an ex-Stazzi, now a sort of private-investigator. Frank Langella also appears somewhat briefly in the type of role he’s become known for – the mysterious elder statesman. The car chase sequences are also well directed, without an over-reliance on CGI.

The film feels rather clichéd and falls into some of the familiar tricks of ‘lost identity’ films – suspicious figures shadowing Harris, lack of trust in doctors/professionals etc, all feel rather familiar. There’s also a Taken type vibe – American man in Europe fighting against corruption. However this does not hugely detract from the film and it passes as enjoyable entertainment.