Worth your money

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2011)

An ingenious script that echoes concepts, plotting, pace and intrigue from mysteries such as Nowhere Man, Frantic and The Bourne Identity. Once again, Liam Neeson shows his prowess in choosing projects of high interest and executes a performance that connects well with his audience.
To put this in context, mystery thrillers are very hard to pull off anymore. Filmmakers must create layers of mysteries that the audience cannot easily second guess, peel them back one by one to reveal answers that themselves sometimes turn into mysteries later, and resolve all of them in 2 hours without seeming contrived or obvious. To make it more challenging, the characters must be empathetic, the action sequences satisfying, the pace agreeable, the dialog convincing, and the setting compelling.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has pulled it off again, following on the heels of another successful thriller, Orphan. This director is a rising star.