Unknown

Although, “Unknown” maintains the audience’s attention, as the plot twists and turns it ends up just being the most bizarre case of stolen identity.

Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) travels to Berlin for a biotechnology summit with his wife Liz (January Jones). When they arrive at the hotel Martin realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport. He hops into the nearest taxi to go back to the airport. On the way there he gets into a car accident and resulting in a head injury and a four day coma.

When he wakes up Martin wants to return to his wife but when he does she fails to recognize him, and without his papers he has no way of identifying himself. Liz is also with another man (Aidan Quinn) claiming to be Martin Harris. Left alone in a city that has forgotten him, Martin must find a way to prove his identity and also fight his own doubts of who he is.

The plot definitely grabs the audience’s attention as Martin runs around Berlin trying to piece together his life. The audience keeps guessing how it will piece together. There are also obstacles as men follow him around trying to kill him which results in many adrenalin rushing car chases.

The car chases (and a few on foot chases) fail to slow down the plot or even run too long like many car chases do. It helps keep the suspense and adds more questions for the audience and Martin and they both wonder, “Why is this happening?” Other action scenes have fist fights as Martin continuously tries not to be killed, which also adds rather than detracts to the plot.

The film stays true to the thriller-suspense genre and reveals a little at a time allowing the audience to solve the mystery only as fast as Martin can. It fails to reveal too much too fast. The ending comes timely not to soon but not too late.

However, the ending proves to also be the downfall of the movie. Although I cannot discuss it in detail, I will say that it was completely unexpected, in a not-good way. It is unrealistic to the point of being completely unbelievable and since it twists so fast, so unexpectedly with no clues throughout the rest of the movie that this was coming. It’s almost as if they mixed up the ending with another movie.

Although the ending for “Unknown” is unbelievable Neeson’s performance as Martin Harris is not. The characters determination and unswerving desire to find out what has happened is displayed by Neeson. He also gives the character emotion as well when Martin begins to doubt that he is Martin Harris. Neeson gives a good between action and emotion, both of which are necessary for his character.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is just mediocre. Many of the character are merely unexciting and unconvincing, especially since only Martin’s character is truly developed and the supporting characters are there for just that, support (and they fail to do that well also). However, perhaps a stronger foundation of characters would have helped “Unknown” not fall apart as much.

Part of the reason for the boring characters is due to most of the dialogue being dull and uninspiring, not to mention some pretty cheesy lines. Also, audiences may grow tired of Martin’s constant, “I am Dr. Martin Harris!”

Another, fault of the movie is that even though Martin is in Berlin and does not speak German, everyone he meets (that can help him in his identity search) conveniently speaks English. How nice.

“Unknown” has some strong points, but it also has some weak points and in this case it’s places where weakness is not good. However, it’s not a total disappointment. If anything the title is fitting because by the end of the movie it’s the plot that is unknown.