Unknown-Review

Unknown isn't a failure as a film but it does fall short of what it could be. The film follows Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) as he goes to Berlin for a botany seminar, only to get into a car accident and to wake up with no papers, amnesia and not even his wife  (January Jones) looking for him. When he leaves the hospital he finds another man pretending to be him and no friends to help him discover what happened. The first half of the film feels like a sluggish Bourne Identity with Neeson vainly searching for answers with help from Gina, a Bosnian immigrant (Diane Kruger) and a former SS agent (Bruno Ganz). People keep showing up to kill him, which cramps his style a bit, but luckily he remembers how to fend them off. The grey colour palette and stark imagery seem contrived here, since Berlin is already a stark city and the gratuitous shots of Neeson and Jones in the shower are both odd and do nothing to convince us of their supposed wedded bliss. The film presents many opportunities for social commentary-Diane Kruger, an actual German actress playing an immigrant? the anti-capitalist message set in the former East Berlin, Ganz's proclamation that Germans have forgotten they were Nazis and Communists?-but quickly veers away and stays an action movie, not an unwise move-but why present them then? Perhaps with the exception of January Jones, who is as always, January Jones, the performances are solid and compelling. Eventually Martin Harris realises who he is and Unknown becomes a sort of James Bond affair and everything is neatly wrapped up. The ending is brought about with only a few minor plot holes. I fail to see how Liam Neeson, supposedly intelligent and well trained since earlier he nearly pokes a guys eye out, would hop into an unmarked and ominous looking van with Frank Langella and [spoilers ahead] corn that could be deadly in the wrong hands? In any case the ending is quick and neat-Martin gets a fresh start and Gina gets to not be an illegal immigrant anymore. Everyone is happy. That said Unknown is an enjoyable enough two hours, and succeeds in it's capacity as a thriller, if you expected anything else give it a miss, otherwise it's worth your time.