Mixed Messages

Rating: 5/10 (30 June 2009)

From beginning to end, this film packs an amazing adrenaline rush - that much is certain. Perhaps it is the straightforward, nearly nonstop Liam Neeson-as-Steven Seagal action that is buoying the movie's reputation as it enters the rental phase of its life, or the legitimately serious topic of child exploitation / the worldwide child/young adult sex trade, but despite these strengths, the film also causes me to pause and consider its even more distressing qualities - plot holes and inconsistencies, ethnic stereotypes, and the exchanging of one inexcusable violence for another.
Plot Holes: Almost too numerous to mention. Take your pick. Why break into a 5th floor apartment in the middle of the day, carrying two young girls out kicking and screaming when you can pick them up for a "party" later, isolate them somewhere in the city, and then kidnap them? How does a man with an Irish/American brogue pass as a French police officer without speaking a word of French? Why does Neeson say he "was a traitor, not a villain" (or whatever he says on the rooftop) - was there any other explanation of this? I can do willing suspension of disbelief. Really. I know that it's meant to be mindless entertainment... but Rambo Does Paris? It's too much to be a film of any serious importance.
Ethnic Stereotypes: This was particularly bad - spoiled, ignorant Americans safe in their virginal land of California until they discover the dangers that lurk across the ocean in a "foreign" land... the French cutting deals with crudely stereotyped Albanians and Muslims (the "Paris always surrenders" myth) while the righteous Americans have to step in and kick tail... and on down the line. Worse still was the death of the traveling companion (because she has sex with boys) and the salvation of the daughter (spared long enough to be saved because she was pure and thus more valuable) - while this may be a dirty truth of the human slave trade, it still sends an unmistakably puritanical message to audiences.
Violence: Violence against women - especially sexual violence - is abhorrent. That being said, vigilantism, torture, and murder are no panacea for what ails human society. If everyone pulled a Liam Neeson, there would be anarchy.
A 7 or 8 out of 10 means that you want people to take a film seriously. This film, while interesting in some respects, adrenaline-pumping and exciting throughout, merits no more than a 5 or a 6 for those qualities. It is meant to be eye candy and a good mindless summer rental. It is NOT a serious film that will have a lasting impact upon cinema.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing to me as a member of the critically thinking (?) public is that lately we have been eating these sorts of movies up like it's our job - and then assigning critical kudos where none are deserved. Whether it's "Wanted" or "Taken", we are mistaking mindless action (which has its place at times) for Oscar-worthy material. I hope that we come to our senses soon and learn to keep the two in their separate spheres of influence.
A good summer rental. Nothing more. And please, I beg you, critically analyze the mixed messages of the film. I think you'll begin to see how many a moviegoer may have been "Taken" at the box office.