Just when you think that the movie industry has run the amnesia well bone dry, along comes still another wild riff on the subject of forgetfulness. What a great disease for screenwriters! a disease that keeps on giving — and with no end in sight.
This time, Dr. Martin Harris, ostensibly a biotechnologist but in reality a professional assassin, is involved in an automobile accident. Harris wakes up in the hospital but of course without memory. He comes to believe that he's actually the scientist he's pretending to be — and so do the amnesia-naive among the audience. (I'm giving away the gimmick, but it doesn't matter because no one is going to see this movie ever again. No audience, therefore no spoiler.
Implausible, derivative, threadbare. No cliche left unborrowed: two separate car chases, a coma, a mysterious new girlfriend, double agents, an international assassination syndicate, a sadistic hit man, doctored photos, phony passports, suspenseful countdown to the explosion of the terrorist bomb, etc. The usual stuff.
On the other hand: Unknown is slick, expensive, well acted, well paced; well photographed,
It's a quick fix for those who enjoy "thrillers." Bad medicine for those who prefer psychological credibility. Candy for connoisseurs of the infinite variety of movie amnesia.
By the way, what's happened to Liam Neeson's nose? It's become Durante-esque. Cyranoid,
Leave a Reply