Been-There-Done-That but still entertaining.

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2011)

Admittedly Liam Neeson is tailor made for the character he plays in this film, something very similar to Taken, although here he's in far less control. Aside from that, these films are a dime a dozen and easily forgettable. Just like Taken, the plot of Unknown places Neeson in a foreign country, this time Germany, where he's on a mission to find 'something'. After so many films in the same vein, the "something" ceases to be important. It's simply an opening to introduce a variety of sinister characters and high speed car chases. Granted the plot of Unknown is a little more interesting than your average man-on-a-mission movie, it definitely has it's moments. But it never rises too far above predictable and borders on ridiculous at times.
Neeson plays a man who is introduced as Dr. Martin Harris. He and his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) arrive in Berlin to attend some type of biotechnology summit. Not long after his arrival, Harris' taxi plunges into an icy river and he narrowly escapes death thanks to the quick thinking of his driver Gina (Diane Kruger). Luckily Elizabeth wasn't in the taxi with Martin or else this would have been a totally different movie. Martin wakes up in the hospital four days later only to find that his life as he knew it has ceased to exist. When he finds his wife, she informs him that she has no idea who he is. In fact there's another Dr. Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn) who claims to be her husband. Neeson doesn't believe it, but the man has documentation proving he's the real(?) Dr. Harris. He's even got a honeymoon photo with Elizabeth to prove it. Neeson's character shares the same thought process with the audience. Is he crazy? And if he is, how does he have memories of his wife? Is it one big conspiracy? If it is a conspiracy who's behind it?
As I've already said, the ways in which Neeson begins to unravel this mystery are predictable. He'll encounter characters who are not entirely trustworthy, but luckily he'll have an ally (preferably female) who always happens to be in the right place at the right time. He'll be followed by someone wearing all black who probably knows some form of martial arts, or carries a knife, .... or maybe both. He'll have another character who he thinks he can trust, but who will inevitably turn out to be a double agent. And so on and so on....It's even got what Roger Ebert terms Underlying Reality Speeches. This is where some character, usually at the end of the film, has a monologue explaining the entire plot to the main character, essentially providing the answer to the audience because there was simply no other way to do so in the natural course of the film. I always find those a bit disappointing, like cheating somehow.
Unknown is by no means a bad film. It kept me interested from beginning to end, even while I recognized that it was following a course I've seen many times before. The problem is that just when it starts to get really good, it slides back into autopilot and basically stays there. . My rating: 6.5/10 Too predictable to be great, but still good nonetheless. It's worth a watch.