Stylish thriller that holds its own pretty well

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2017)

While the stunts, chases, fights and so on that pepper Jaume Collet-Serra's "Unknown" seem at times to push credibility to and beyond its limits, it transpires that they do not do so quite as much as we at first think, for this complex thriller story mostly hangs together well enough, if one is patient enough to wait for the twist in the tale to appear. There have been no shortage of "respectable guy goes to a foreign city and forgets who he is" kind of movies, and they are mostly worth a watch. But here an extremely intricate setup is involved, and mostly it's interesting and fun to see how it can possibly all work out...
With that, a lot hangs on how credible Liam Neeson can seem as Dr Martin Harris ... and not Dr Martin Harris. Mostly Neeson seems up to the job, but if his character is to reform, the love and support of a good woman (at last) is a necessity, and a lovely (in every sense) Diane Kruger here comes over very well indeed as "Gina", an immigrant from somewhere to the east whose non-legal status in Berlin has given her some of the experience needed to "keep up" when Harris's life gets VERY complicated. Two other huge presences in the film are a spellbindingly-good Bruno Ganz as an ex-Stasi man (where we of course know that there can never be such a thing as an ex-Stasi man), and Frank Langella, who - as usual - puts in a great performance, this time as the coolly-likable-yet-horrible Rodney Cole.
For me, a further star of the film is the (to me quite familiar) city of Berlin itself - tamed maybe, compared with its former status, but still giving the impression that anything just might happen there. Playing a key role is the Hotel Adlon Kempinski, just a stone's throw from the Brandenburg Gate, which has seen it's fair share of history (though what we see now is mostly the 1997 rebuild). There are plenty of other settings too, sumptuous or downmarket, and all help contribute to the tangible atmosphere that does quite a lot to make up for other, occasionally over-the-top elements.
Overall, then, an intriguing and satisfying watch with a couple of very good parts well played to savour.