Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 113 minutes
Release Date: February 18th, 2011 (USA)
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director(s): Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer(s): Oliver Butcher & Stephen Cornwell / Didier Van Cauwelaert (novel Out of My Head)

And that’s where I first saw Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man.

I have it on good authority from a friend that Jaume Collet-Serra’s Unknown, as well as Didier van Cauwelaert’s French-language novel it’s based on, is uncannily similar to Roman Polanski’s Frantic. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the 1988 film to weigh in. The premise of both is definitely similar and my friend knows what he’s talking about, but I enjoyed Collet-Serra’s vision a lot regardless.

The film is aesthetically gorgeous through all the graffiti and dark streets of Berlin. In all honesty, the plot is somewhat obvious if you’re a fan of amnesiac thrillers—especially with a very methodical pace initially to familiarize us with the characters and the identity theft device. So, besides a couple extra gamechanging twists thrown in while we cement our own hypotheses, the real strength lies in the acting and direction.

Perhaps it’s too on the nose to use reflection as a major visual tool considering the film relies heavily on the unknown solution to the puzzle of Dr. Martin Harris’ identity, but you can’t deny its effectiveness. So many camera shots hold onto the figure of an actor only to seamlessly change focus, flip upside down, or pan sideways to either go into a reflection or show how the original was one. The entire script deals with our brain’s interpretation of a given scenario and how we put the facts we’re given through the prism of our mind for an answer.

It’s what we do while watching and what the characters do when confronted by two separate Harrises. One is coming and one is going, the illusion of identity becoming refracted and skewed in two as both seemingly have no reason to lie while also knowing the exact same information. Both Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn’s versions are so entrenched in this man’s history that they speak facts only they could know in unison when trying to convince someone they are the real Martin. If this man’s life was a script, they each knew the part.

The prologue is flawless in its convenience, setting into motion the series of events that risk locking a happily married scientist inside his own unraveling insanity. Martin and Elizabeth (January Jones) arrive in Germany unfettered and ready to enjoy the sights and attend the conference he’s lecturing. It all seems normal as they get into a cab and head to their hotel with a briefcase accidentally being left behind.

It’s Martin’s need to reacquire it that places him in another cab that crashes into a river wherein the driver (Diane Kruger’s Gina) narrowly escapes with him unconscious in her arms. His concussion jumbles his mind to the point where he only knows his name, his wife, and what he’s doing in Berlin. It’s when he returns to Liz that the mystery begins. So, through glass panes, mirrors, and cloudy memories slowly forming inside Neeson’s damaged mind, we wade through the waters of truth and fiction to pick sides and concoct plausible answers. Unknown is begs us to become as invested in the mystery as the characters.

With a wife looking him in the eye devoid of recollection, another man assuming his identity, and no proof that he is who he says, Neeson’s Martin wonders if he’s crazy too. Why would anyone go through the trouble of replacing a scientist? The implausibility of that question haunts him, but also captivates the only people who believe him enough to help.

Kruger’s Gina, an illegal Bosnian immigrant trying to earn money for papers (yes, they cast a native German in a film set in Germany, but made her Balkan), is the only person not embroiled in this apparent ruse who knew him before the crash. Bruno Ganz’s ex-Stasi Ernst Jürgen is too intrigued by the story to pass up the opportunity to rekindle his investigative skills. So, the trio collects evidence, follows the ‘imposters’, and slowly unravels the truth. With political intrigue and old friends harboring secrets, the whole endeavor soon appears like a complete fabrication. Everything we know, discover, and guess might therefore be wrong.

The layers go deeper as each revelation makes the plot more interesting and surprising to add to the enjoyment factor once things hit their stride halfway through. It doesn’t feel forced either. The writers aren’t pulling the wool over our eyes with twists. The characters we’re privy to just don’t know the rules of the game yet. We are thrust into Martin’s quest as cluelessly as he is.

The performances help us cultivate opinions. Neeson’s sympathetic man who’s had everything taken away. Jones and Quinn appearing to be in love albeit with a tinge of deception beneath the surface. And Kruger and Ganz are seemingly unencumbered by deceit as outsiders looking in. Each character is who we believe they are in correlation to people like Sebastian Koch’s keynote summit speaker or Rainer Bock’s head of hotel security passing judgment. Only when Frank Langella’s Rodney Cole enters the equation do we begin to see clearer.

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LIAM NEESON as Dr. Martin Harris in Dark Castle Entertainment’s thriller UNKNOWN, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.