Neeson just doesn't have the extra gear this demands

Rating: 6/10 (17 January 2013)

This Bournesque - Hitchcockian affair is a well written story, slightly flawed by the trauma from accident which drives the whole plot. But its biggest flaw is the miscasting of Neeson as Dr Martin Harris. Neeson just doesn't have the range required to make this role as effective as the film's plot demands to achieve credibility. And that is a pity because otherwise it may have been challenging Bourne and even some of Hitchcock's best like Saboteur.
Dr Harris and wife (Jones) arrive in Berlin for a conference but the doctor mislays an important briefcase and sets in chain a series of events that shock, surprise and confuse. There is a lot of twisting and turning and some excellent cameos from Bruno Ganz as Jurgen a man who finds things out, and Eve Lobau as a nurse who is concerned for Dr Harris's health. It is in these characters we begin to find the Hitchcockian elements.
I'd have liked a different ending since the chosen outcome left too many loose ends and perhaps I would have rewritten the entire last twenty minutes in the interests of credibility. But the film is at least competently enough out together to entertain. It could have been a lot better with a little more attention to detail.
Six out of ten - Neeson four out of ten.