Have we become strange people in strange countries ?!

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2011)

OK, some said it's similar to (Frantic - 1988). Others said it's a complete rip-off from (The Bourne Identity - 2002). And I see that it looks like a better remake of a TV movie, starring (Alec Baldwin), named (Second Nature - 2003)!
Well, to be fair, it has elements that apparently have been dealt with many times lately. However, it holds up nicely. The movie is a good thriller from start to finish. Only the storyline of the old detective, and how it ended, that was a bit forced (I still wonder about the link that led his killer to him!), and the never understood point about how the 2 leads came up with new passports at the last scene? (Liam Nieson) is an action star who wasn't discovered as such until his late fifties. But that has a lovely side since there aren't many action starts, from that category, in Hollywood of today, unless (Harrison Ford); who's not a favorite of mine, while (Nieson) is. (Diane Kruger) proved that she's an actress, not just a pretty girl like she was in (Troy - 2004). The directing is fine; it kept me thrilled. The action sequences are catchy, especially the car chase; being the movie's highest moment. And the cinematography was enjoyable and artistic, with green and dark blue image. I loved particularly that taste of gray ice in some parts; it embodied perfectly the case of coldness that the lead faced during the first 2 acts; which leads to the subject that did interest me the most in (Unknown).
We have a lead that doesn't have an identity, doesn't remember his history, and doesn't have a faith in any human. Add to that, being chased by killers, as if it isn't enough to kill his past and presence, so his future is marked for death as well. It's a dark image for the human of today, living with no name or memory, no love or trust, no peace or home. Therefore, he's always strange in strange land. This sense of pressing, cruel and lasting alienation is so sensed in the list of movies with the same "unknown" theme. Although they mostly dealt with it in the format of the spy action thriller, but its melancholic master crises is unmistakable, and its being as frequent in the past decades must mirror an origin in the factual life. It's some reading for the modern age's world, which pushes us to forget everything since it is all horrible, meeting the ultimate fate of being killed or killer, and disappointing the search for the most important question at all: Who Am I? which is - and don't consider it a coincidence - another movie, starring (Jackie Chan), from 1998, about a spy who lost his memory, and wants desperately to not be a stranger, choosing - in the same time - to do the right thing lastly!
Winning knowing yourself can't be happened while you're alone. However, in the awfully cold circumstances that we live, you find yourself forcibly away and alone. Otherwise, you don't have a choice but to be a spy, who lives - at best - many lies after the other, lost in many foreign streets and faces, not enjoying anything real in his life except death. Ahh, we need a lot of carriage to love / do the right thing these days. See how underneath a thriller like that a lot of things, related to you and your life, boil. It's solely a reason to be attracted to such a movie, else being well made.