Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture

Thriller with impressive elements

byStaff writers
6 March 2011
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

UNKNOWN: Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Rated M (violence and brief sex scene). 113 minutes.

IF thrillers about lost or stolen identities appeal to you, then Unknown may be for you.

The taut script and interesting cast will keep viewers awake and wondering until the end.

But those wanting greater plot plausibility and character depth may be disappointed.

Liam Neeson plays Dr Martin Harris, a mild-mannered, happily married bio-technologist attending a conference in Berlin with his wife Liz (January Jones), who survives a near-catastrophic car accident to discover that his wife doesn’t recognise him, and another man (Aidan Quin) has assumed both his name and his job.

In his search for answers Martin seeks help from Gina (Diane Kruger), a young Bosnian woman working illegally in Berlin as a taxi driver, and Ernst Jürgen (Bruno Ganz), a former member of the Stasi (the East German secret police) who agrees to help Martin prove to the world that he is who he says he is.

Pursued by assassins, and the seeming victim of a well-orchestrated conspiracy, Martin races against time and impossible odds, including some spectacular scenes including car chases and a  bombing, in the attempt to reclaim his life, wife and sanity.

Based on the novel by Didier van Cauwelaert, Butcher and Cornwell’s tightly written script has plenty of twists and turns, and is one of a growing genre of “amnesiac” films which began with Hitchcock’s Spellbound and includes The Manchurian Candidate and more recently Memento and The Bourne Identity.

Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan) directs with panache, but despite Liam Neeson’s charismatic presence on screen in such early films as Rob Roy, Schindler’s List, and Michael Collins, his performance in Unknown is strangely wooden.

He seems, unaccountably, to be reading his lines.

Related Stories

‘We must act now’ – Caritas Australia chief says Ethiopian food crisis is acute

Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

Pope Francis condemns Independence Day parade attack and calls for end of violence

The film fares better with its other stars.

Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) rises to the occasion splendidly, bringing depth to her character and necessary credibility to her impossibly athletic feats.

Similarly memorable is January Jones (TV’s Mad Men), as Martin’s cool, inscrutable wife, Elizabeth, and Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn (Sarah’s Key) as the mysterious Martin B.

But top honours go to Bruno Ganz  (Wings of Desire, Downfall), who brings idiosyncratic dominance to all his scenes as Jurgen, the ex-Stasi agent who like Martin, no longer knows who is who since the fall of The Berlin Wall.

His scene with fellow veteran Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) provides needed ballast and is the highlight of the film.

Similarly memorable is Unknown’s cinematography.
Flavio Labiano captures post-1989 Berlin admirably, with more than a passing nod at the beginning to Wim Wenders’ “angels” (Wings of Desire) as the camera pans from the air, Berlin’s Victory column and Brandenburg Gate.

Jan Epstein is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Respectful look at death and the pain that follows

Next Post

Caritas’ work is saving lives

Staff writers

Related Posts

Caritas Australia Richard Landels

‘We must act now’ – Caritas Australia chief says Ethiopian food crisis is acute

6 July 2022
Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women
News

Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

6 July 2022
Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
World

Pope Francis condemns Independence Day parade attack and calls for end of violence

6 July 2022
Next Post

Caritas' work is saving lives

Interest growing in Missal change

Women honoured on international day

Popular News

  • Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

    Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plans for indigenous elements, memorials to trauma, to complement Catholic liturgy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mass with signs of indigenous respect launch historic Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Called to share the message of Jesus at mission school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Caritas Australia Richard Landels

‘We must act now’ – Caritas Australia chief says Ethiopian food crisis is acute

by Hannah Kennelly
6 July 2022
0

RITAS Australia chief executive officer Kirsty Robertson has called for an immediate response for ugent famine prevention...

Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

6 July 2022
Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.

Pope Francis condemns Independence Day parade attack and calls for end of violence

6 July 2022
Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

6 July 2022
‘For the moment, no,’ – Pope Francis dismisses resignation rumours in wide-ranging interview

‘For the moment, no,’ – Pope Francis dismisses resignation rumours in wide-ranging interview

5 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping