What Do The Critics Say?

"Following in the footsteps on "Taken", Liam Neeson stars in this action-thriller as Dr. Martin Harris, a research scientist. Liam Neeson remains a formidable heroic figure and Diane Kruger is always compelling to watch. Flavio Labiano’s photography of the car chases and a rooftop escape is dazzling. Adapted by Olivier Butcher and Stephen Cornwell from a 2003 French novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert." Susan Granger SSG SYNDICATE "Neeson brings gravitas and sneaky wit to his role. Neeson kicks ass to save himself from identity theft. He's a star with something extra. His scenes with Kruger, the glam spy of "Inglourious Basterds", sizzle. "Unknown" becomes a diabolically entertaining con game. Does it jerk you around? Yes. Suck it up. The ride's worth it. "Unknown" makes it fun to be fooled, even if you hate yourself in the morning." Peter Travers ROLLING STONE "Collet-Serra is a particularly stylish director, exemplified by the art gallery sequence, laced with cat-and-mouse weavings, by pursuer and the pursued, between and around painting display flats. In fact, his directorial weaving is splendidly, and literally, showcased in several wild car chases shot in downtown Berlin. Talk about 'wow'. 'Unknown' is a nail-biter, an edge-of-seater, and a fast couple of hours. An old school thriller with edgy, frenetic action." Steve Crum VIDEO REVIEWMASTER "There is a car chase sequence in Unknown that is so awesome, even Steve McQueen would be impressed. Unknown has a great story; great performances and we get to watch Liam Neeson mess people up for two-hours. Liam Neeson needs to play these types of roles from now on! Seriously, there is nothing better than watching Liam Neeson kick-butt." Kevin McCarthy BDK REVIEWS "As long as filmgoers come to "Unknown" unencumbered by a need for plausibility, this handsome, well-paced production possesses its share of twisty, visceral pleasures. Collet-Serra perks up the procedural with some brutal fights, efficient murders and one spectacular car chase. "Unknown" keeps it low-key and consistently intriguing." Ann Hornaday WASHINGTON POST

"A stylish and muscular thriller with some nifty twists and turns, a wicked sense of humor, several terrific performances and not one or even two but three of the best car chases in recent action-flick history. Keep your expectations reasonable and director Jaume Collet-Serra will exceed them, delivering an exciting and unjaded entertainment with tremendous atmosphere, one that will keep you guessing." Andrew O'Hehir SALON REVIEWS "A strong thriller that’s a cross between the 'Bourne' films and Roman Polanski’s 'Frantic', 'Unknown' is a sharply directed adventure ride that keeps you guessing up until the very end. The city of Berlin has never looked better on film, with much credit going to photographer Flavio Labiano. The film is smartly edited and the thrills one would expect are nicely delivered. Frank Langella is his usual solid self." Michael A. Smith NOLAN'S POP CULTURE REVIEWS "While we may have Taken on the brain, Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra and his team of writers are reaching further back than that 2007 hit. Unknown will remind you of other thrillers, but it doesn't recycle much, whipping together an original plot that's sufficiently tense and capable of withstanding scrutiny. Taut and tidy, a one-two punch we don't always get from today's thrill rides." Sean O'Connell FILMCRITIC.COM "With his soulful gaze and crooked nose, his seeming reluctance to throw a karate chop but his deft ability to do so, Neeson has an air of melancholy and menace: you feel sorry for the guy, and wary of him at the same time. It's all very Hitchcockian, at least for a while. And clever and exciting, too." Steven Rea PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "Liam Neeson returns for another round of quality biffo with this tight, super-enjoyable action-mystery thriller. This is a surprise-packed, action-packed, fun-packed ripper of a romp where the plot’s escalating degree of preposterousness is made all the more entertaining by the film’s raft of resolutely straight-faced performances and the solid direction of Spanish hot-shot Jaume Collet-Serra." Jim Schembri THE AGE

The Inside Story What if you knew, deep down, who you really were, but couldn‘t prove it? And what if someone else—someone you didn‘t know claimed to be you and everyone believed him? That is the dilemma at the center of "Unknown". Who or what determines who we are? Is it our friends? Our memories? Where we come from? Or a piece of paper? Where is the proof? Based on the novel by Didier van Cauwelaert, "Unknown" explores exactly that as Dr Martin Harris, played by Liam Neeson, races through the cold streets of Berlin in order to take back his life, while dodging the men who are hot on his trail and trying to kill him. Though he has no idea why. Director Jaume Collet-Serra offers: "My favorite films are those Hitchcockian thrillers that have that mysterious atmosphere, where the audience is as much in the dark as the characters, and you don‘t really know where the story is going to take you." Producer Joel Silver stated: "I love a nail-biter, a real 'edge of your seat' movie, and that‘s what I liked most about this story. You don‘t know if Martin Harris is the good guy, or if he‘s gone slightly insane and is making this whole crazy thing up." It was Emmy Award winning producer Leonard Goldberg ("Something About Amelia") who brought French author van Cauwelaert‘s book to Silver. "When I read the novel, I thought it would be a perfect vehicle for Joel and I to produce together, because it was such a unique thriller and the ending totally surprised me. Happily, Joel was as intrigued with the story as I was." "Leonard was right; it had such an interesting hook to it, I couldn‘t put it down. We developed the screenplay with two great writers, Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell," New Jersey born Silver confirmed. To direct the film, Silver looked to Jaume Collet-Serra, with whom he had collaborated on two prior films: "House Of Wax" & "Orphan". "Jaume has a great style and understands how to let a mystery unfold. I was eager to work with him again." "I loved the idea of this man waking up one day and discovering that he has been replaced in the world," Collet-Serra says. "And there was the added drama of another person being able to prove he was him, while the protagonist could not. It was the first of several great twists in the tale, and even with all these great clues sprinkled throughout the script, I liked that I could not figure it out." The star of "Unknown", 2005 IFTA Award winner Liam Neeson ("Kinsey") was pulled into the story from the start. "For me, it‘s always the script, and this was a real page-turner. My litmus test is this: if I can get to page fifty without stopping for a tea break, then it‘s a very good sign. This was such good material that I had to read it all in one sitting." Producer Andrew Rona ("The Losers") agrees. "This was one screenplay I truly couldn‘t put down. It was such an exhilarating read; I couldn‘t wait to see how it would translate to the screen." Silver describes "Unknown" as "a freight train, it just grabs you and goes. And you may think you know where it‘s going, but I don‘t think you‘ll see this one coming." Neeson ("Taken") was cast as Dr Martin Harris, a botanist, who arrives with his wife, Liz, at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin for a biotechnology summit. When Martin realizes that his briefcase didn‘t make it into the taxi with them, he grabs another cab to rush back to the airport. But en route, they are in a terrible accident. The driver, Gina, bravely saves Martin‘s life but then mysteriously disappears. After lying in a coma for four days, he awakens. But, with no identification, Martin struggles to remember who he is. When he does, his first concern is for his wife, who he thinks must be worried sick about his sudden disappearance. His priority is to immediately contact her and dispel her fears. The filmmakers all agreed that Neeson was the perfect actor for the role because he has such tremendous screen presence. "I've always admired Liam‘s work," Collet-Serra says, "and for a director, he is a generous actor that keeps on giving, on set and on screen. He can be very intense and very subtle at the same time." Both would be required; it was essential that the character draw the audience into his psyche, so they would be trying to decipher why all this is happening, right along with him. "One of my concerns was that the viewer has so little time to get to know Martin before everything goes awry. But with Liam, there's an instant connection. You like him, you believe in him." "We wanted somebody people would root for," Silver ("Sherlock Holmes") added. "Liam has great charisma, and is also totally accessible, and those are exactly the traits we needed for Martin Harris." Neeson, who made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People" after joining the Belfast Lyric Players Theatre, was attracted to the idea of exploring lost identity. "I totally locked in to what Martin was going through. I was an amateur boxer as a kid, and I got my bell rung a few times. It‘s always stayed with me, that memory of not having a memory, even for a short time. It was an interesting life experience to draw on for this role." The first and most devastating for Martin iswhen he goes to see his wife. He is stunned when she greets him with nothing more than the guileless stare of a complete stranger. Playing the part of Elizabeth Harris is January Jones ("Mad Men") who, like Neeson, was drawn to the unique qualities of the story. "This was something I hadn‘t read before; it was so interesting and intricate. It reminded me of those old spy movies, with a sense of danger and intrigue, but also a hint of glamour to it." Jones also enjoyed the enigmatic way her character was written. "Nothing was set in stone with Liz; she was very smart, but also inscrutable, and I loved how unpredictable she was. You know that Martin loves her, but her side of the story isn't quite clear, so there was a lot to play around with." "January is an intelligent actress and her work is very layered," Collet-Serra says. "She's also beautiful in a way that is reminiscent of the femme fatales of the `50s, so she really had all the qualities we wanted to play this indefinable figure." "Liz Harris is the icy, sexy blonde who is right in the heat of things," Silver notes. "January was wonderful at giving you just enough to let you know there's more to her story, without giving anything away." Diane Kruger, who played Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", was cast as Gina, a woman who has good reason to avoid the authorities. "She doesn't want to be questioned by the police at the scene. So she flees as soon as she sees Martin is being attended to." But, when Martin tracks her down hoping for answers, she wants nothing to do with him. "She doesn‘t want any part of him or his crazy story. Gina is scared of where she comes from, things she has experienced in her life and what helping him might mean to the small amount of security she‘s managed to build for herself." "Gina is running away from her past, looking for a new identity, which, in a way, is something she has in common with Martin. They are both working hard just to survive," Collet-Serra observes." Part of that survival involved some challenging action sequences. "To play her, Diane had to do a lot of physical work as well. She had to keep up with Liam through all the action, the fighting, the car chases. She did an incredible job. She was a real team player." "We were lucky enough to have Diane Kruger and January Jones opposite Liam Neeson. They are both talented and beautiful actresses who bring distinctive and contrasting qualities to their roles," Goldberg ("Double Jeopardy") says. The other man, refered to as Martin B, is played Neesom's pal, Aidan Quinn ("Sarah's Key"). Quinn loved playing the doppelganger for Neeson, who is also a close friend. "I found it to be a really compelling story with a very interesting premise and a lot of twists and turns. The fact that Liam was in it was icing on the cake; it was a lot of fun to be pitched against each other." "At one point we have an extended physical fight. We had to do a lot of training and rehearsing, which can be tough, but doing it with a mate means that you can be much more relaxed and just have fun with it," Neeson, who became a US citizen in 2010, added. Martin seeks help from Ernst Jürgen, a former member of the Stasi: the East German secret police. Jürgen is something of a relic in that, while the world has moved forward, he has remained in the past, defined by what he did in what seems like a lifetime ago. Jürgen is played by acclaimed Swiss actor and winner of the 2004 Bambi Award and 2005 Bavarian Film Award, Bruno Ganz, who describes his character as: "a man whose life doesn‘t make sense anymore, because he was a true believer in something that no longer exists, so he does not exist anymore. He protected his country, ministry, state, so he has lost what made life worth living. Nevertheless, he is incredibly smart and willing to help someone else who feels lost." "Bruno brought a sort of quiet dignity to the role that was unexpected," Silver notes. "It was really a pleasure to watch." Ganz elevates the status of Jürgen in the film, producing a fascinating character we'd like to know much more about. I last saw Ganz in the 2005 film, "Downfall", in which he plays the most realistic version of Adolf Hitler I've ever seen in a film or on TV. If you come across the DVD, I urge you to watch it. Another esteemed veteran actor joining the cast is Frank Langella in the role of Martin‘s good friend from the States, Rodney Cole. Director Collet-Serra was thrilled to work with both Langella and Ganz. "They have one of my favorite scenes in the movie. They had just met that morning, and I spent probably only an hour with them before the crew arrived, blocking the scene. They both delivered subtly powerful performances. I had such a smile on my face. I could not believe that I was directing Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. "I look for roles where I can make some sort of impression, and this was one of those," 2010 Sant Jordi award winner Langella ("Frost/Nixon") says. "Bruno and I were talking about it on the day we shot our scene together, that every now and then you come across these parts that may be brief, but have very telling moments, and they‘re worth taking. I really feel that this movie is what an international thriller should be like, the sort of movies I grew up with. You get your soda, you get your popcorn, and you go along for the ride." Rounding out the international cast are acclaimed German actor and 2006 Bambi Award Sebastian Koch as research scientist Professor Bressler and Olivier Schneider ("Rush Hour 3") and Stipe Erceg ("The Edukators") as Smith and Jones, relentless killers hunting Martin Harris through the streets of Berlin. Schneider wore two hats on the film, also serving as the film's fight and stunt coordinator, working with Collet-Serra and the cast to choreograph the film's suspenseful action sequences. The film's action is set entirely in the German capital of Berlin, which is also where the movie was shot. What's It All About?

Dr Martin Harris and his wife Elizabeth have arrived in Berlin to attend a Biotech Conference. While transfering from the airport, his briefcase is left behind. Realizing the error, he hails a cab and heads back to the Airport. On the way there the cab is involved in a freak accident that ends with it crashing through a bridge and into the river below. When he comes to, four days have passed. He discharged himslef and heads back to the hotel, only to discover that his wife suddenly doesn‘t recognize him and another man has assumed his identity. Ignored by disbelieving authorities and hunted by assassins, he finds himself alone, tired, and on the run. On his own in a strange country, Martin seeks aid from an unlikely and reluctant source as he plunges headlong into a deadly mystery that will force him to question his sanity, his identity and just how far he‘s willing to go to uncover the truth that eludes him.

The Verdict "At fifty eight years of age and with four action roles in a row (Henri Ducard in "Batman Begins" (2005), Bryan Mills in "Taken" (2008), Colonel Hannibal Smith in "The A-Team" and now, in 2011, as Dr Martin Harris in "Unknown"), many are claiming Irish born, American actor Liam Neeson, has re-invented his career. That's almost true. His career has taken a new turn, thanks to "Taken", a movie many American film critics describe as a sleeper. But is playing an action-man new for Neeson? Maybe not! You see, two decades ago, Neeson starred in his first major American film playing Peyton Westlake in the Sam Raimi helmed, "Darkman" (1990). Those with Scottish ancestry would rightly claim he played the ultimate action-man when he took the lead role of Robert Roy MacGregor in the 1995 Michael Caton-Jones film, "Rob Roy". While these two films were action packed, they are worlds apart from his most recent 'kick-ass' roles. Sure he got his arse kicked in "Batman Begins": but not in "Taken". In "Unknown", Neeson plays Dr Martin Harris, a man who is not all he appears to be. An accident, loss of memory and denial by his wife that he is in fact her husband, will eventually lead Harris (and the audience) to discover who he really is. And while the level of violence is way below that of "Taken", there's plenty of action packed into this film. Once again, Neeson plays a character that audiences can attach themselves to and cheer for. The cold winter setting (Berlin) adds another dimension to the ever increasing bleak outlook as Harris struggles with his predicament. While Neeson is the star, the producers & director Jaume Collet-Serra are to be commended for their choice of supporting cast members, including: Diane Kruger ("National Treasure" & "Joyeux Noel"), January Jones ("The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" & TV'S "Mad Men"), Aidan Quinn ("Wild Child"), Frank Langella ("Good Night, and Good Luck.") and Bruno Ganz ("The Manchurian Candidate" & "Bread and Tulips"). The work of D.O.P Flavio Martínez Labiano ("800 Bullets") is highly commendable. Exciting thriller. 4 STARS." Who Is Playing Who?

Liam Neeson Diane Kruger January Jones Aidan Quinn Bruno Ganz Frank Langella Sebastian Koch Clint Dyer Olivier Schneider Stipe Erceg Rainer Bock Mido Hamada Karl Markovics Eva Löbau Helen Wiebensohn Merle Wiebensohn Herbert Olschok

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Dr Martin Harris Gina Elizabeth Harris the other Martin Ernst Jürgen Rodney Cole Professor Bressler Biko Smith Jones Herr Strauss Prince Shada Dr Farge Nurse Gretchen Erfurt Laurel Bressler Lily Bressler Hans Brandt

The Production Team Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra Screenplay Oliver Butcher & Stephen Cornwell From the Didier Van Cauwelaert novel "Out of My Head" Produced by Leonard Goldberg/Andrew Rona/Joel Silver Original Music by John Ottman & Alexander Rudd Director of Photograph Flavio Martínez Labiano Film Editing by Tim Alverson Casting by Simone Bär & Lucinda Syson Production Design by Richard Bridgland Supervising art director Andreas Olshausen Art Direction by Stephen Dobric/Anja Müller/Cornelia Ott Set Decoration by Bernhard Henrich Costume Design by Ruth Myers Run Time 113 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Roadshow Films - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2011 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.