Life of Bryan - Neeson as Eastwood in Luc Besson tale of Albanian Human Trafficking

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2008)

Luc Besson, magnifique, what can I say, hein? He wrote Fifth Element with Bruce Willis set in the far future and then he also did The Messenger with Mila Jovovich set in the past looking at Joan Of Arc; this time Luc handles Human Trafficking and removing certain stereotypes some may have of Liam Neeson, of "Love Actually" and the first "Darkman" film.
Neeson is Bryan, a former CIA operative who so loved his daughter he went AWOL for her b'day showed his devotion to her despite being punished with an Antarctic assignment.
He chooses retirement in order to be near Kim, his daughter for her b'day despite her Mother resisting Bryan's attention. This aloofness no doubt is to prove her devotion for the new rich husband in her gold-digging life played to scintillation by ex-"X-Men" Famke Jenssen.
When Kim wished to go to Paris, Bryan's old war-horse alarms tingled and he ignored them at the pressure of his former spouse to show his daughter he was not uptight, big mistake! Luckily, Bryan made sure Kim carried a roaming mobile which was essential when she got abducted by Albanian smugglers - all he had was the MP3 of their voices and he kept replaying to learn their voices and other clues.
Neeson's calmness yet underscored with a leonine ferocity far blew away any previous notions of his playing a college professor type! The technology used in the film to track down the abductors was amazing, a perfect counterpoint to the "Interrogation Methods" used by Bryan on Marko, the Albanian ringleader in human trafficking...
Two knitting needles, jumper cables and house current - oh yes! A gag too, brrrr! This is definitely a story to make you think twice about letting your kids go gallivanting off by themselves since much of this new/old crime - also called "White Slavery" has been happening for decades! Make sure teens do not blather all their travel details to complete strangers, OK?