THRILLER; 1hr 53min
STARRING: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones
Finding himself: Kruger and Neeson
When you’re a stranger in a proverbial strange land, your identity hangs by the thread of your passport. Arriving in Berlin for a biotechnology summit with his lithe young wife (Jones as Elizabeth), botanist Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) loses his briefcase, then is involved in a potentially fatal car accident. After he awakens in hospital from a four-day coma, Liz professes not to know him, and another man (Aidan Quinn) has taken his place — with all the paperwork to prove he’s the real Dr Harris deal. Welcome to Berlin.
Inconceivable? Not the way director Jaume Collet-Serra tells it. Unknown is a race, a rush and two pulsing question marks. Martin Harris is the victim of something. But what? And why? With the help of an enterprising taxi driver (Kruger) and an ex-Stasi officer (Bruno Ganz), Harris unpicks the puzzle, piece by slippery piece. The screenplay means business at every turn, rolling out the shocks and stunts with the mad adrenaline of an amusement-park ride. Not that Neeson is amused, of course — as an actor, he’s purpose-built for intensity. And oh yeah, he gets it.
