Unknown
starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella
screenplay by Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell
directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Rating: ♦♦◊◊◊
Based on the book Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert, Unknown is a psychological thriller, set in Berlin. A professional assassin arrives in Berlin to murder an agronomist whose genetically modified corn breakthrough threatens the profits of big food corporations. But before he can carry out his contract he is involved in a car accident and ends up in a coma for several days. Upon awakening he wrongly thinks that he really is who his cover story says he is. So then he wanders around an unfamiliar city with no identification and just a crazy-sounding story. He sets out to discover his true identity with the help of acquaintances he encounters along the way. Naturally, people are chasing him and others are being murdered left, right, and center and he doesn’t know why.
I enjoyed seeing an English movie set and filmed in Berlin. To me, Berlinis just a fantasy place. It exists mostly in my imagination, from books and war movies.
The movie was okay, I guess. The story was interesting and should have made for a better movie. Most of the performances were great, but I didn’t dig either Liam Neeson’s performance or his character. I was very happy to see January Jones, though. This is the first time I’ve seen her in a leading role. In fact, it’s only the second time I’ve seen January Jones in a movie at all. The first time was in a very small part as Jeannie, one of three American dream girls at a Wisconsin bar in Love Actually (2003, directed by Richard Curtis). Jeannie was the girl who did that thing with her eyes while coquettishly biting the tip of her thumb.