Unknown / Unknown Identity (2011)

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Unknown / Unknown Identity (2011)

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A biochemist and his dishy wife arrive in Berlin for a conference at which a scientist and his controversial Arab funder will announce breakthrough research. While his wife checks into the hotel, he grabs a cab to return to the airport for his briefcase, left at the curb. En route, an auto accident puts him in a coma, from which he awakes four days later without identification and with gaps in his memory. He goes to the hotel: his wife refuses to recognize him and another man has claimed his identity. With help from a nurse, the cab driver, a retired Stasi agent, and an academic friend, he tries to unravel what's going on. Is the answer in the briefcase?

Als Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) nach einem schweren Autounfall aus dem Koma erwacht, beginnt sein Albtraum erst: Seine Frau (January Jones) erkennt ihn nicht mehr und ein anderer Mann (Aidan Quinn) hat Harris’ Platz eingenommen. Nicht nur als ihr Ehemann, auch als angesehener Wissenschaftler, der auf einem Kongress einen wichtigen Vortrag halten sollte. Als ware das nicht genug, wird er auch noch von einem Killer (Stipe Erceg) gejagt. Was ist mit ihm passiert? Harris beginnt an seinem Verstand zu zweifeln. Um seine Frau und sein altes Leben zuruck zu gewinnen, macht er Gina (Diane Kruger) ausfindig, die Taxifahrerin, die ihn bei dem Unfall gerettet hat. Sie und der ehemalige Stasi-Agent Jurgen (Bruno Ganz) sind seine einzigen Verbundeten im Kampf um seine Identitat gegen einen ubermachtigen Gegner.

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Unknown / Unknown Identity (2011)

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While attending a biotechnology summit in Berlin with his wife Liz (January Jones, Mad Men), Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson, Taken) is involved in a violent car wreck that leaves him in a coma for four days. He wakes up, disoriented and confused, and quickly realizes his memory of the accident and the events that preceded it aren't entirely clear. Strangely though, no one not even his wife seems to have been looking for him in the four days that he was missing. Returning to his hotel, he's soon shocked to discover Liz doesn't recognize him at all. In fact, she's married to a completely different man (Aidan Quinn, Flipped) who claims he's the real Dr. Martin Harris. With no way to prove his identity and few clues at his disposal, Harris tracks down the female cab driver (Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds) whose driving landed him in the hospital and turns to an Stasi agent-turned-private detective (Bruno Ganz, The Reader) in an effort to make sense of it all. As the stakes are raised and assassins come filing out of the woodwork, an old friend (Frank Langella, The Box) arrives to help identify the real Dr. Harris.

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Unknown / Unknown Identity (2011)

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If you had the misfortune of seeing Unknown's theatrical trailer or TV spots, you've already stumbled across the film's deepest, darkest secrets. As is so often the case nowadays, the previews were as riddled with subtle spoilers as Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell's screenplay is riddled with plot holes (chasms, really). Not that any of it ruins the film per se, but it does take some of the spark and sparkle out of Collet-Serra's identity-thriller fireworks. Either way, the question of who Dr. Martin Harris is pales in comparison to the more pressing questions that slowly but surely begin seeping out of every crack in his dapper doppelgдnger's story. To Collet-Serra's credit, there are moments of near-brilliance. Desperate to prove himself, Neeson's Harris squares off against Quinn's Harris in a heated tкte-а-tкte in which both men rattle off strikingly similar personal memories, sometimes saying the same things, word for word. It's a creepy little scene; one that tragically sets the bar too high for everything that follows. For every brain-bending psychological conundrum, there lurks a ludicrous solution that requires baffling leaps in logic. Worse, when all the answers have come to light, the entire puzzle makes even less sense than it did before. Langella is tasked with short-lived expositionary posturing when a meatier role would have been far more satisfying; Neeson is eventually demoted in service of a tale that gets more knotted and tangled as it inches along; and the rest of the cast hurries to catch up, something they never quite manage to do.

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Unknown / Unknown Identity (2011)

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Yet it's Neeson and his castmates' performances that keep Unknown kicking through its death throes. Neeson nimbly shuffles through at least four incarnations of Dr. Harris, evolving every time new truths and old memories surface. With a hint of Taken-aggression and a sliver of Five Minutes of Heaven-resignation, he shoulders the full weight of the film's burdens, even when Collet-Serra's shaky house of cards threatens to come tumbling down. And his supporting actors? Langella steals the show, if only for ten or fifteen minutes. Quinn, always a favorite of mine, doesn't disappoint. Ganz's Stasi sleuth could easily have been the main character in a different film. Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) is underused, but makes the most of every scene. And Kruger functions well as connective tissue, despite the fact that her cab driver could be yanked from the narrative without affecting much at all. Only Jones vacant, sterile and altogether disposable stands apart from the otherwise smartly assembled cast. Any blonde with a bewildered expression could have filled Liz's shoes in Jones' stead, and the good doctor's wife would have been better for it. Ultimately though, Unknown is too bumpy and broken an international thrill-coaster to sustain multiple rides. Genre junkies will enjoy it as a Friday night rental, but little more. Just don't think about it too hard once the credits roll; you'll find yourself liking it less and less the more you retrace its steps.

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown (blu-ray.com)