Unknown: Popcorn Thriller

Sure, Liam Neeson has starred in epic films like “Rob Roy,” provided the wise voice of Aslan in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and saved hundreds of people in “Schindler’s List.” But, you ask, can he drive a car fast in reverse as a homicidal maniac tries to simultaneously run him over with a SUV and shoot him with a very big gun. The answer, as demonstrated in “Unknown,” opening today, is yes. Yes he can.

Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris, a scientist who has come to Germany to give a talk at a bioscience conference. He’s accompanied by his comely and lovely wife, Elizabeth (January Jones), who we don’t notice is played by an actor literally young enough to be Neeson’s daughter. Stop noticing!

When the happy couple arrives at the hotel, Harris discovers he’s forgotten a briefcase at the airport and sets off in a cab to retrieve it. Things go horribly awry. He awakens in a hospital four days later. When he returns to his presumably frantic wife, life goes even more awry. She doesn’t remember him, doesn’t even recognize him. What’s worse, she’s accompanied by a smug short guy claiming to be her husband, Dr. Martin Harris.

As Harris, the real Harris, tries to assimilate this information, he teeters between the belief that he has gone crazy and the conviction that there is much more to the story. It’s hard to take a break and think, however, as he’s being chased by a nasty German assassin who likes nothing more than leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Harris teams up with Gina (Diane Kruger), the taxi driver who saved his life in the accident that led to the hospital. They also enlist the help of Ernest Jurgen (Bruno Ganz), a relic of the German secret police in the good old Cold War days. They just know they could figure out the mystery if only people would stop trying to kill them and give them time to calculate.

Although the movie starts slowly, the big reveal lends enough drama to the second act to make it a interesting and dramatic thriller. It’s hard to say more without giving it away. Neeson, once you get past the age disparity between him and his bride, delivers the right amount of intensity to the movie. Kruger, once you get past the incongruity of such a lovely taxi driver (mine always seem to be smelly fat guys), makes a loyal and spunky sidekick.

Rated PG-13, the film steers away from crude language. It does have a brief but memorable scene of Mr. and Mrs. Harris in the shower which is awkward with young teens. If it weren’t for that, I’d have no reservations recommending it to young teens. The action is fast paced and sometimes intense, but not gruesome.

All in all, I enjoyed it as a popcorn action movie with a nice twist. It’s no “Schindler’s List,” but it’s a lot more fun to watch.