Get to Know "Unknown"

Liam Neeson's latest one-word-titled movie, "Unknown," is in a genre of some kind, but I'm not sure what. The enjoyable actioner has elements of "The Bourne Identity" (man has memory-jogging accident, life completely changes), "The Fugitive" (man is put in unfair circumstances, is pursued), and "Frantic" (man seeks lost person with foreign girl who is the only one who believes him).  I guess that explains the full title, "Unknown, or "The Bourne Fugantic."  Perhaps the genre is "Mysterious Thrillers About Identity That Don't Exactly Make Sense But That's OK Because We Just Want to See the Likeable Actor Who We All Wish Was Our Dad Kick a Bunch of Ass" or:
MTAITDEMSBTOBWJWTSTLAWWAWWODKABOS in your Netflix recommendation category).

The movie starts off with botanist Liam and his wife (played with icy aplomb by January Jones, channeling the same character she played in "Mad Men" as the icily-aplombish wife to the titular ad guy played by Jon Hamm) arriving in Berlin for a seminar.  He realizes his cab driver forgot to load his briefcase at the airport and when he goes back to get it is in an automobile accident which puts him in a coma for four days. When he gets out of the coma, he goes back to his wife, who suddenly has no memory of him and a different husband with his name. The rest of the movie involves Neeson trying to figure out if he's insane (SPOILER ALERT: which he is not or I would have slipped a reference to "Shutter Island" in the title), and as mentioned before, Kicking a Bunch of Ass and trying to clear up the mystery.  Frau Farbisina, no sorry, I meant Colonel Kleb, no sorry again, I meant Bridget Von Hammersmark (from "Inglourious Asshewls") actress Diane Kruger stars as the Foreign Girl Who is the Only One Who Believes Him (with the baggy wool hat), the Villainous Frank Langella stars as the SPOILER ALERT: Villain, and Aidan Quinn stars as another actor in the movie.

Posted by: GMan