'Take back your life'

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2011)

UNKNOWN is. Many aspects of this cerebral suspense thriller are given to the audience in snippets - bits and pieces that involves the audience in keeping up with the ever-changing story line or simply throws everybody for a loop - especially the ending. Adapted from the novel 'Out of my Head' by Didier Van Cauwelaert and molded into a screenplay by Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell this film needs a seasoned director to make it work: Jaume Collet-Serra isn't quite there yet.
American Biotechnologist Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) arrives in Berlin with his wife Liz (January Jones) for an important world conference to unveil a newly developed failsafe corn developed by Professor Bressler (Sebastian Koch) and underwritten by Prince Shada (Mido Hamada). But once at the hotel Matin realizes he left his briefcase at the airport and while Liz checks in he grabs a taxi driven by Bosnian immigrant Gina (Diane Kruger): in an attempt to race against time the taxi is in an accident and plunges into the river - Gina escapes the underwater car and saves Martin's life. Martin is comatosed in a hospital for four days attended by Dr. Farge (Karl Markovics) and wise nurse Gretchen (Eva Löbau) and when he awakens he has memory loss: he remembers his name and begins to piece together the events that brought him to the hospital, remembering that his wife Liz may be worried about him. He leaves AMA and begins a journey that proves to be a long one - his identity has been stolen by another man who claims to be Martin (Aidan Quinn) and Liz claims she doesn't know her own husband. Without identification and desperate for answers martin finds Gina who pledges to help him, supplying Martin with the name of an ex-Stasi spy Ernst Jürgen (Bruno Ganz) who helps Martin paste together his identity. But the trouble has just begun as Martin finds himself being chased by a group of thugs (Olivier Schneider and Stipe Erceg), and Gina is helpful but in the middle of the situation with her dear colleague Biko (Clint Dyer) also in danger. Even the appearance of martins old friend Rodney Cole (Frank Langella ) doesn't aid Martin's quest for regaining his complete memory until a jarring turn of events introduces a whole new explanation for the strange plot that is so full of twists it almost sinks from its own weight.
The cast is strong and Liam Neeson again proves that characters such as this fit perfectly into his charismatic macho appearance. The other reliable pros - Diane Kruger, Sebastian Koch and Bruno Ganz - add credibility to their roles and there are many relatively new faces that seem to show great promise in screen presence. Yes, there are some fine car chases and pyrotechnics, all well captured by Flavio Labiano's cinematography. The driving musical score is the work of John Ottman and Alexander Rudd. Though is a bit over long at 2 hours, it does deliver some fine entertainment. Just leave the sense of logic on the shelf for this one.
Grady Harp