Review of Unknown (2011) by Rosco — 04 Jun 2011

An interesting yet intriguing film. Having seen how tremendous Taken turned out to be and how superb Liam Neeson was I had high expectations heading into Unknown. The plot was enticing - Doctor Martin Harris (Neeson) awakes from a coma having been in a car crash only to discover that his wife (January Jones) doesn't recognize him and that another man has assumed his identity.

A clever idea and one which initially plays out pretty well. Harris on the search to find out exactly who he is and what happened. This builds up the intense and mystery elements within the film. Along the way Diane Krugers character Gina becomes more involved and her performance is fantastic as an illegal immegrant caught up amongst Harris' troubles.

Unfortunately the work done to add the mystery and intense side become overshadowed as the film loses its way at times and there are some sequences that just don't quite fit in with the way the film was planning out.

The ending for me was rather cheap in what what overall a fairly decent thriller. It made it into yet another conspiracy theory with a secret organization but somewhat confusing given the fact that Neeson's character hadn't shown any signs or had any incline to believe he was an assassin, it was trying to pull a Bourne Identity on the viewer and i'm sure I wasn't the only person left feeling disappointed with the ending.

Overall, Unknown is by no means a bad film its an enjoyable and interesting film that starts off promising good things but gradually loses its way and even Liam Neeson at his best at times cannot get away from the disappointment it was a missed oppertunity.