Reshaping...it's possible, but you gotta know how

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2009)

"I'm retired, but not dead", Brian Mills, a former CIA agent tells a friend in Paris when he can't understand how he manages to get any kind of information about anything. Mills, played by Liam Neeson with unstoppable force and as an old-fashioned vigilante who fears no one and kills everyone in every room he sets foot in; is in Paris because his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace, 25 and capturing the essence of a 17 year-old) was kidnapped by some Albanians while on vacation with a friend.
That's all about the plot, and even if you know how it ends, it's not everything about "Taken". It's no coincidence that Pierre Morel, the director of the movie, was the cinematographer of "The Transporter" and "Danny the Dog"; and of course it's less of a coincidence that Luc Besson, writer of those films, wrote this film (alongside Robert Mark Kamen, who also wrote 'Transporter') and produced it.
Besson never ceases to amaze me. This whole decade, he has created a new kind of action piece and reshaped it, again and again. I'm not sure if I know the exact formula yet, but I can tell you some of the elements. I use the word 'reshape' because Besson's writing material is never original, but it never sounds repeated. The same happens with the action itself; whether it's Corey Yuen's fantastic use of cars in 'Transporter', Leterrier's excellent management of the fight scenes in 'Dog' or Morel's wonderful car chase scene around a trailer-or any single frame of a gunshot, for that matter- in this movie, the producer always gets the best out of the directors he chooses.
"Taken" is so straightforward in his development, and this is respected by the whole cast and crew and assures the success of every moment of every scene in front of the viewer. The parental relationship Besson is so obsessed about and never fully developed (watch 'Dog', "Wasabi", "Leon", "Nikita" to experience the pieces) is the basis of the moving content of the film, and it's written with enviable intelligence. When Kim is kidnapped and his father decides to look for her desperately, we don't know very much about him, or her, or their relationshipAnd somehow that's precisely why we root for him, for a man who burns down every place he visits. By not giving us enough information of the characters, Besson leaves us no choice but to believe in Neeson's confident face-and fate-, no matter what.
Brian, with this confidence, says (and not to a friend): "I'll hunt you, I'll find you and I'll kill you". The movie doesn't waste time in unnecessary dialogs, shots, or scenes. This father always goes right to the point, and the camera goes with him skipping everything in the way. As I told you, you may know how it ends, but you can't imagine how impressive the ride in between is.