Liam Neeson fairly burst onto the big screen in 1993 with his compelling performance as Oskar Schindler, the man who saved over a thousand Jews from Nazi execution, in the Oscar-winning Schindler's List. It wasn't his first film by any means, but it was his first big film, and it garnered him an Oscar nomination for best actor. From there his career turned in the direction one would expect for an Irish-born, classically trained actor with a resonant voice and proclivity for accents. He played characters with stature: Rob Roy, Michael Collins, Alfred Kinsey, Jean Valjean, the god Zeus. He was the voice of Aslan. He also had fatherly, mentoring roles in such films as Batman Begins and Star Wars Episode I.
So how did this stately-but-slightly-sagging, now-middle-aged man suddenly morph into an action figure? A figure who has become a number one draw at the box office?
It started with Taken (2008), a film in which he plays a father determined to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Not an unlikely reach for a man his age — except that his character, Bryan Mills, is a retired CIA agent who is highly trained in combat and espionage. Taken was 10% distraught father's angst and 90% thrill ride, with enough hand-to-hand combat, gunfights, dead bodies, and car chases in a 93-minute thriller to satisfy the most avid video game player. (And that's what many of these new thrillers have become: video games without the controllers.)
From there Neeson has voiced a character in an actual video game (Fallout 3), and fought the bad guys with The A-Team. Now he is taking on a horde of assassins in the new psychological conspiracy thriller, Unknown.
With a more engaging plot than most action movies, Unknown offers a satisfying evening's entertainment. The story has numerous unexpected twists and subtle clues, with enough red herrings to keep even this staid reviewer off balance. Neeson plays Martin Harris, a biochemist arriving in Berlin with his beautiful wife (January Jones) to present a paper at a scientific conference. When his briefcase is accidentally left behind at the airport, he grabs a cab to retrieve it and ends up in the river when the driver swerves to avoid some falling debris. By the time Harris returns to the hotel, after spending four days in a coma, another man has taken his place, and his wife does not recognize him. Creepy men start following him. Cars race through traffic with guns blazing. Bodies crash through walls in the throes of battle. Bones crunch. Bullets fly. Blood flows. Necks snap. And in the middle of it all, Liam Neeson, looking more like Al Bundy than James Bond, is the unlikely action hero.
I don't get it. But I like it.
