An interesting and compelling idea for a film that is extremely well acted yet doesn't deliver on the narrative side

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2011)

An interesting and compelling idea for a film that is extremely well acted yet doesn't deliver on the narrative side. Unknown follows a couple in Berlin, Dr. Martin Harris, played by Liam Neeson, and Elizabeth Harris, played by the jaw-dropping January Jones. Martin is a scientist and is in Berlin to speak at a Bio Tech Summit and his wife is just tagging along. When they arrive at the hotel, Martin realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport with his passport in it. He hails a cab with Diane Kruger driving and on the way there gets in an accident and is in a coma for four days. When Martin awakes and finally finds his wife, she doesn't know who he is, another Martin Harris is with her that she says is her husband and he can not provide any real ID that says he's Martin Harris. What's nice here is that this all happens within 15 minutes after the opening credits. There's no time wasted on developing the problem and thus creating suspense and fear from the start. From here he tries to figure out what's going on, is he crazy? is there something more going on?, while also believing he is being followed. I don't want to say much more than that at this point because I don't want to give anything away.
The cast is great here. Liam Neeson is good no matter what role he's doing (well maybe not Zeus), and he's in familiar territory here playing a much tamer version of his role from Taken. I haven't seen much of January Jones, well I haven't seen much of her acting I guess is more appropriate, but after this I am very excited to check out Mad Men as well as being that much more pumped to see the new X-Men. Diane Kruger plays the cab driver that crashes and causes Martin's coma, however she becomes an integral character further in the storyline. As for Langella, he plays one of Martin's friends that could potentially help him provide proof of his identity, but he only really shows up for about 15 minutes towards the end of the film. It's a very strong cast but it loses itself in the pacing and narrative of the story itself.
The director, Jaume Collet-Serra, is a little over his head on this one, with some of his past credits including the remake of House of Wax and Orphan. He does do a very nice job in the first half of the film showing the anxiety and fear of Martin not knowing if he really is Martin while being in an unfamiliar location. Where he fails is through his pacing. The film feels very boring and somewhat predictable (which could accredited more to the trailer, I pretty much had it figured it out from the previews and that should never happen). The action scenes are few and far between and don't really deliver. There is one decent car chase scene and the final fight scene is very well done and a lot of fun to watch, but others are just forgettable. Then in between the action scenes Collet-Serra slows it down too much with the mystery part of the story instead of trying to make the it more suspenseful with the answer slowing coming to be. Instead he hits you with the solution all in one scene and to be honest I was a little let down by it. I feel like it was pretty anti-climatic but that's all I can really say without giving anything away.
The idea behind the story is very interesting and could be extremely compelling but it just wasn't delivered very well here. The first act is exciting and full of what the hell is going on moments but after that it's pretty weak until the finale. Also, some of the scenes are very reminiscent of Taken and makes me think that they are just trying to get in on the Taken money. I mean its Liam Neeson, in a foreign country, looking for answers and fighting a bunch of people in between. It not quite worth the theater admission but worth the wait for Blu-ray/DVD, right around the time when you'll forget the trailers that showed way too much information. But if you're a fan of a good mystery and a Neeson fan I recommend it. You might be slightly bored in the middle part of the film, but just remember that January Jones will be back on screen momentarily.