Unknown stars Liam Neeson (Taken), January Jones (X-Men: First Class) and Diane Kruger (National Treasure) in the action thriller based on the French novel Out of My Head by Didier van Cauwelaer. Originally titled Unknown White Male the movie follows Neeson's character who loses his memory after a car accident and tries to put the pieces of his life back together.
Honestly this movie really didn't do it for me. I know Taken was an amazing movie and it figures that any action movie from here on out that Liam Neeson is attached to will garner the same initial hype BUT -- for this film it wasn't deserved. The story itself was very slow and took to long to get going. Described as an action thriller I'm still waiting for the so called thrill to surface and as far as the action, five meaningless minutes at the very end of the film doesn't warrant that title of action movie either. Don't get me wrong the plot itself was okay. Not only does the guy lose his memory but people around him forget who he is as well. It's like he doesn't exist so in that situation you feel like you're either losing your mind or that something is seriously wrong. I just think the execution of the plot itself is what turned me off to the film.
They say expectations can work one of two ways. You could expect greatest from a film and when you achieve that greatness it measures up to it but doesn't exceed it. On the other hand that expectation can also be a letdown and leave you with a feeling of disappointment leading you to believe that expectations in general should be left at the door when heading into the theater. I can tell you how many times I've seen movies with no expectations going in an when that movie surprises you for the better you feel a hell of a lot better about your movie going experience. Even if that movie is a disappointment you don't feel as bad because the expectation for that movie to be great in the first place was never there. I for one expected a lot out of this film and walked away wanting more. Feeling like there should have been more.
I expected Unknown to surprise me the way Taken did and i was left disappointed. Everything you heard about this film before it hit theaters had the movie taken attached to it and after seeing Unknown the comparisons are unfair. For both movies really. Yes Liam Neeson stars in both movies but they couldn't be more different and if Unknown were allowed to stand on it's own then maybe I would have had a different Take (see what I did there) on the movie.
Overall the performances in Unknown were pretty good so that's a positive in a film that didn't have much else going for it once the ending credits rolled. One of the worse feelings in the world (well in the world of movies anyway) is walking out of the theater unsatisfied and that's how I felt after seeing this film. With such a promising storyline and plot that shouldn't have been the case but in this instance -- it was.
3 out of 5 stars
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