An ambitious effort paired with uneven execution.

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2011)

"You really don't remember anything, do you?"
An American professor in Germany (Liam Neeson) for an important conference is separated from his wife, gets in an accident, and wakes up with amnesia to a world where his identity has seemingly been taken by another man. Along with a taxi driver (Diane Kruger) who is his only link to his life before his accident, he tries to unravel what's going on and avoid mysterious men who seem to be hunting him for unknown reasons.
Unknown certainly aspires to be a top-notch thriller. And it has the cast to accomplish that, including Neeson, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella, as well as enough twists to satisfy any audience.
But just because a story is initially unpredictable, doesn't make it great. Only a few scenes in Unknown actually held my full interest, while most stayed safely in the mode of generic action and car chases that we see in countless movies a year. You'll be able to sympathize with the amnesia-stricken main character quite well, because so little of Unknown is memorable.
The mystery of what's going on was enough to keep me watching until the end, but curiosity by itself is not exactly entertainment. The answers, when they come, are a little too implausible to be satisfying. This is a plot that's easy to poke holes into, if you're into that kind of thing.
Unknown isn't horrible, it's simply inconsistent. It starts off as a thriller, hits several rough patches between the occasional compelling moments, and finishes up as if it was trying to be Taken 2: Take Harder.
Definitely a rental, in my opinion.