Unknown (2011): Let's Keep It That Way

What can be bad about a movie with Liam Neeson? Well, quite a lot, actually! If you went to the movies much in late 2010 or early 2011, you've probably seen the trailer for Unknown. It actually looked kind of interesting. Guy goes to a convention with his beautiful wife; gets bonked on the head in an accident; returns to the convention only to find that his wife doesn't know him and claims to be married to another fellow, who has stolen his identity. Could be a cool story here, but sadly the writers (Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell) and director Jaume Collet-Serra can't seem to find or concoct one. What we have instead is a "thriller" that makes no sense, and a movie probably not worth your time.

Unless you like exciting car chases. Because there are a couple of slambang action scenes in this picture, with cars crashing, bad guys shooting at good guys, explosions, great stunt work, etc. Problem is, this action could be transposed into any number of action movies and really has very little to do with this one. Other problems are that the dialogue is embarrassingly bad, and the plot - even with, or maybe because of, the surprise twist at the end - does not work.

Liam Neeson, at age 59, is way too old to be doing action movies like this, although he does a creditable job here, despite the fact he has little to work with. Pairing him with 32-year-old January Jones, as his ostensible wife, is pushing the May – December envelope a little far. I love January Jones in Mad Men, but she really can't act – not that she has to do much of that here. On the other hand, Diane Kruger turns in a very nice performance as a tough taxidriver, who gets caught up in the action with Neeson.

There are also some nice turns by Bruno Ganz as a former Stazzi agent who gets interested in helping Neeson, and by Frank Langella as a, um, 'colleague' of Neeson. But their work is wasted on this insipid film.

I like thrillers, I really do. I like thrillers about lost identity, like the Bourne trilogy, or Memento. Unknown isn't in that league. It's not in the league of lesser films such as the recent Hanna or The Adjustment Bureau.

There are way better ways to spend two hours.

Available on BluRay or DVD (if you must)