Unknown (***)

The thing with a thriller like this one is that its success hinges on what happens near the end. If the plot does a good job explaining why Dr. Martin Harris—or should that be “Dr. Martin Harris” (Liam Neeson either way)—wakes up after a taxi accident in Berlin and finds another man in his place, great. If it turns out to be something stupid—like the dream sequence that erased a season of the TV show Dallas—or absurd, well, you’ll have felt like you wasted 113 minutes.

Dr. Harris, bearing an American accent, has arrived in Berlin for a medical conference with an American with his prim young wife (January Jones). Berlin was Paris in the Didier Van Cauwelaert novel on which the movie was based, but in any case the good doctor is out of his element when he awakens, which probably explains why he never calls his mom/dad/sister/best friend to verify his identity to the police, who understandably don’t believe his story. Since his wife doesn’t seem to recognize him, there’s only the cab driver (Diane Kruger) to help. Her and an ex-Stasi agent (Bruno Ganz) now working as a missing-persons expert. Ganz, though his role is brief, is certainly the most memorable character in the movie. Reviews suggest that the book had a deeper focus on memory as the locus of identity, and the agent character seems to be the chief remnant of this philosophical aspect.

So this is no Momento, but as conspiracy thrillers go, it’s not bad, and while not truly believable, the explanation does indeed explain all. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) does all right with a couple of car chases, and, unlike Neeson’s last thriller Taken, there is no gratuitous torture scenes or even that much violence. You could do worse for a diverting suspense drama.

IMDB link

viewed 2/15/11 at Ritz East and reviewed 2/22/11