Unknown Review

• 2nd Mar 2011

Liam Neeson returns to Europe for another thriller (after the huge success of Taken) with this new one word titled film about a man on a business trip with his wife who gets into a random accident. After a short time in a coma he awakes to find that the world seems to have no idea who he is (including his wife!) and he has been replaced with another man, claiming to be him!

If this idea seems hard to swallow then you are best to avoid it. If however this sounds like the kind of fun you’d like to explore further then Unknown could be for you. Perhaps it is faster paced and less concerned with character than say Roman Polanski’s Frantic, but Neeson is worth every buck. Whilst he isn’t quite the arse kicker he was in Taken, he sells the emotional side of a guy whose life has been stolen away from him and the heartbreak that comes along with the tension.

The twists and turns the films take are questionable, but thankfully it flows at such a pace that you just want to find out how this is going to turn out.

A nod to a scene stealing Frank Langella. It is  worth pointing out his early confrontation with another character is pretty tense. We also should send out our commiserations to Aiden Quinn, he is completely underused which is a shame as he seems to have been missing from our screens for too long.

Unknown could be a film you watch once and never again, but don’t let that diminish how much fun it is. It just adds to the hunger for Neeson to take on more of these action roles (and we may be getting Taken 2!) as he does it well and he can act. Statham is history if Neeson hangs around.

Steven Hurst