"Frantic". Not "Taken".

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2011)

I went to see Unknown after reading some baffling mixed reviews here. Some were saying the movie is horrid and just like "Taken", others were saying that it's wonderful and nothing like "Taken". To me the very analogy was disturbing, as I think "Taken" is a bad shoot-em-up video-game pretending to be a movie. Well, for my money, the only commonality between the two movies is their poster. (Neeson, side-facing, gun-toting, grave and menacing -- the resemblance is uncanny, and obviously not accidental. Were the producers trying to capitalize on the success(?) of that train-wreck??)
The movie that one SHOULD make comparisons to, but that requires a tad better cinematic memory, is Roman Polanski's classic "Frantic". See if you can spot the differences: a doctor and his wife visit a foreign city they are unfamiliar with and where they do not speak the language. Soon after they land, something drastic happens, and the two get separated, after which most of the movie is spent with the doctor trying to figure out what happened to his wife. Police are turned to, but to no avail, as he cannot corroborate his own story. Help comes from an unlikely source: a kooky local girl with an obvious crush on the married, older man. She invites him to her small apartment and from there starts a chase on roof-tops, in cars, and through disorienting night-clubs, at the end of which our protagonist finds that the key to all events lies in something he had all along. Once that is cleared up, and reality once again makes sense, the third act is then dedicated to killing bad guys and getting away with a moderately happy ending. Any of that sounds familiar?
With that comparison in mind, under Polanski's direction Paris is grittier than Collet-Serra's Berlin, and Liam Neeson, though widely-recognized as a fine actor, doesn't bring to the role the intensity that Harrison Ford does. Ford's character is jet-lagged, exhausted, flabbergasted, enraged, and frankly at the end of its wits. Neeson's doctor doesn't even come close. The entire movie Unknown is less a grab-you-by-the-throat thriller and more of a joy-ride. The doctor is only matinée-level enraged, the girl is only PG-kooky, and the moderately-happy ending is more of a crowd-pleaser. All these traits probably make Unknown into a more box-office-friendly movie than Frantic, but I don't think 23 years from now I'll have any recollection that I ever saw it. Frantic, on the other hand, is a cinema classic.
The big stand-out here is Frank Langella, bringing to his performance every inch of the intensity Neeson is lacking. His one joint scene with "Jurgen" (Bruno Ganz) is unforgettable.
Regarding the ending: don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. After having seen the trailer I wrote down to myself what I thought the big reveal is going to be, and I was right. The fact that this twist can literally be spotted a mile away, however, does not detract from its charm. The script provides ample and effective misdirection, and at no point did I feel cheated.
So, bottom line: If you're looking for cinematic genius, you're barking up the wrong tree. But if you want a fun movie, go see it. Have fun. I know I did.