Review: Unknown where most is known

Unknown (2011) Photo: Warner Bros

House of Wax director Jaume Collet-Serra taps into the action genre for the first time with Unknown (2011). This $40 million investment takes place in Berlin, Germany where Liam Neeson's Dr. Martin Harris and his wife Liz (January Jones) have come to attend a biotechnological summit. Soon upon arrival Martin is involved in a car accident in which he and the cabbie (Diane Kruger) is flung off a bridge. He wakes up 4 days later with no memory of anything before arriving in Berlin. In all haste he seeks up his wife only to find out that she doesn't recognise him. If that's not traumatic enough, there is also another man in his place, someone claiming to be Dr. Martin Harris and married to Liz. Failing to convince the police he really is Martin Harris, he starts to hunt back his past.

Unknown's greatest appeal wasn't perhaps being another "Liam Neeson action flick" but January Jones' movie debut post-Mad Men. Those of the latter would however be mad-tastically disappointed as Jones' character is next to nonexistent.

Alas, the disappointments don't stop there. Unknown is neither as mysterious or thrilling as it wished to be. Not only failing to realise the plot's intriguing potential, they also hugely underestimated the audience's imagination. While we've already figured out most of "Martin's" past, 38 minutes were still to pass before it was revealed in the movie. The storytelling was therefore filled with nothing but laughably see-through mystique and a loads of redundant scenes.

Another great acting waste was Diane Kruger's Gina, an illegal Bosnian immigrant. Why they thought that they should put German Diane Kruger in a movie set in Germany as a Bosnian immigrant is beyond me. Kruger is neither convincing as a Bosnian nor an illegal immigrant, however that may be the cause of the costume designer and make-up people. Giving Diane a messy ponytail and make her wear a tank top and jeans doesn't by far make her look like a ragged poor immigrant. (Then again, can she ever look anything less than flawless?)

With a tedious storytelling and redundant action, Unknown is best kept unseen.