Film Review: Taken

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2009)

Director Pierre Morel has given us a solid winter movie experience with Taken (2009), an action/thriller with plenty of character. I went into this film expecting lots of action. I got that action, and more.
The opening frames of this film are, unquestionably, canned sentiment. This theme continues throughout the beginning of the movie, but it isn't the generic stuff. It's the satisfying, nostalgic kind, a sort of cinematic Chef Boyardee, if you will, and not the cold, straight-out-of-the-can collegiate sustenance, but the lovingly warmed kind your mother always made you.
Our hero, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is the kind of guy a lot of us thirty-somethings can really identify with. He ekes out a retiree's life in a cheap apartment, to be close to his teenage daughter, a lovely young thing who lives with the ex-wife and her new, rich, husband. The relationship is strained, since the ex, Lenore (Famke Janssen) hardly approves of Bryan's way of life, even though he's given up the spy game.
So here's a man who gets emasculated at every turn, but willingly suffers it to build a relationship with daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Her businessman stepfather, more present in his white collar than Bryan could ever be in his CIA issue, offers up an Arabian horse to compete with Bryan's karaoke machine.
But when young Kim is abducted by slave traders in Paris, Bryan earns his keep. As the tension builds, we see an agent-turned-father in his real element. It isn't long before his buddies in the trade get him enough info to start the hunt, and it's here that the pace really starts moving.
Before long, Bryan's in France, dealing out one erg after another of brutal justice as he tracks down his daughter. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not all chases and fights. Well, no, that's a lie. It is all chases and fights, but not only are they perfectly filmed, timed, and acted, but they do a terrific job of portraying the character. Now, Bryan Mills isn't your usual good guy. He's not your usual antihero either. Hell, he's not even your usual Jason Bourne. He's a father with years of combat and espionage experience, and he holds nothing back in retrieving his daughter. Every scumbag who gets in his way pays an unmerciful, but suitable, price. Beautiful, vicious martial arts, not entirely unrealistic gunfights, and a breakneck pace reveal a man willing to do anything for his daughter.
Any father should be able to enjoy the seeing the beastly side of parental urges played out so artfully. But there's more to it than that.
This is a movie that's also topical in a few ways. The slave trade is very much alive in the modern world, and could use some attention. In Taken, it gets that exposure. Furthermore, there are themes revolving around the broken family, the general disdain of Americans abroad and government corruption.
The acting in this film was, on all counts, even with the writing. That is to say, it was incredible.
Only a single grammatical error and a fairly dull musical score detracted from my enjoyment.
I am pleased to give Taken 8 of 10 points.