Making My Thoughts on This Weekend's #1 Known

Let’s play Guess That Film:

• Our brawny main character is suffering from a dose of amnesia and is struggling to remember his identity.
• He finds himself with a cache of passports and other forged documents.
• It takes place in Berlin.
• In one scene a car flies off a bridge and into the water below. 
• High-speed chases in Euro-spec autos race down narrow Old World roadways ad naseum.
• The main character hooks up with a cute, blonde Slavic gypsy and nearly gets her killed.

If you guessed the Bourne Supremacy, you’d be right and you’d be supremely wrong.  Let’s rephrase the question:  What film meets all these criteria and was this weekend’s top earner at the box office?  The answer is Unknown.  

Starring Liam Neeson as Dr. Martin Harris, this European thriller/drama has all the same elements that made Bourne Supremacy one of my personal all-time favorite films. (There’s actually one other huge parallel, but in the case of Unknown, it’ll spoil the ending.) Throw in a dash of the 2004 psychological thriller The Forgotten, and suddenly the premise for this film starts to become known.

The acting is well done and the storyline is engaging without being overly complex. Just try to avoid taking a restroom break; you’ll want to catch every detail. That’s not to say if you miss a few minutes you won’t be able to fill it in. But what really carries this film are the visuals. The clash of old Berlin with the modern day. European cars. Those fascinating German accents.

Just like the Bourne Supremacy, there’s plenty of high-flying action as the good guys race to defeat the bad guys, who often lurk around every graffiti-strewn alley. There are lots of surreal fight scenes, and of course those high-speed chases. In Euro-spec cars. Have I mentioned that enough yet? What can I say, I love watching a good chase that involves a Benz E-class. For you squeamish types who don’t like camera work a-la Blair Witch, you may skip the popcorn.

Overall, Unknown is a relatively light thriller. The storyline will captivate and the acting and camera work will deliver. It’s not overly involving emotionally, and of course good wins in the end. Refreshingly, this movie is light on swearing and sex (not that some didn’t get thrown in, of course), and earns its PG-13 predominantly due to intense and surreal violence.

For those like myself in the Buffalo Southtowns, only Dipson Theater at McKinley Mall has this film. For an additional half a buck, I’d gladly have enjoyed it at the Regal. Being a quasi-holiday week with kids off from school and all, I’d definitely recommend Unknown to bust up some late-winter boredom.

Get local show times and venues from Fandango.