Friday, May 27, 2011

Lost my mind in Berlin


Unknown (2011)

Doctor Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) arrive to Berlin for a conference on biotechnology. As they arrive to their hotel Martin notices that he has left his briefcase at the airport and takes a taxi to retrieve it. However the taxi gets into an accident and ends up to the bottom of a lake and Martin wakes up four days later in a hospital. His memory is a bit vague but he remembers all the important things to him. But as he returns to the hotel he notices that someone else has taken his spot and even his own wife doesn't seem to know him. He begins to wonder wether he really is losing his mind or if this is some kind of conspiracy. He of course goes for the conspiracy theory and sets out to expose the whole thing with the help of the taxi driver (Diane Kruger) and an ex Stasi agent (Bruno Ganz). The story is actually quite intriguing, even though towards the end it falls apart quite a bit. It keeps you guessing and even though it doesn't offer that much new to the genre, it actually manages to bring some surprises. The cast is very strong and they are given enough space to shine through. Especially Bruno Ganz steals the show as the old Stasi agent, though I did see some similar manners he did as Hitler, but then again they fit the role quite well. The direction is quite good and the mood fits the story very well. And Berlin as a setting looked quite brilliant. This would have been a great action packed thriller, but too bad it gets a bit silly towards the end. It loses it's edge and turns into a naive formulaic thriller, which is a shame as the first half promised a lot better movie.
64%

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