Unknown

An accomplished thriller that seems to have arrived in 2011 from the seventies, when masterpieces like The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and The Quiller Memorandum were being made. Everything seen (the strangely atmospheric, gloomy Berlin, the progressively gritty Neeson, the sympathetic Kruger, the charismatic Ganz, one of the best car chases in recent times) and heard (the good Ottman) was great. The final twist wasn't that much of a twist, but I can't complain. It's a shame that Unknown was unable to avoid a few horrible clichés in the finale. I still give it four stars. I had fun and I was tense.__P.S. I don't know what was supposed to be mysterious about the film. (09/07/2011)

A step backwards from Orphan, though it looks very promising at the beginning. A Hitchcockican hero with the world turned against him wanders around in snowy Berlin, trying to figure out who he is. And when he does figure it out, everything goes to hell. A decent thriller, but it had a lot more potential. (05/31/2011)

Amnesia, Berlin in winter, secret agents, car chases, a cold femme fatale, an Arab sheikh, a trustworthy and likeable woman taxi driver, a brilliant scientist, powerful people pulling the strings behind the scenes, hit men, an unexpected twist. And also a great cast. It’s all here, but only in a recycled and somewhat overdone form. In his previous Orphan, Jaume Collet-Serra managed to shake up some genre clichés, but that doesn’t happen here. The film’s only memorable scene is the chilling encounter between the excellent actors Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. (05/01/2011)

Many reviews here mention something about a (dumb) punchline suffering from lapses in logic. Quite on the contrary, I think that the story logically (whether or not clever, is a different matter) links and smooths out apparent over-complexity and lapses in logic with something that makes sense, but you must bear in mind that this is a genre movie not pretending to be anything more, so it would be naive to expect anything sophisticated à la Hitchcock. And it works fine, the same as the story in the last thirty minutes. When you add to this the uncompromising Neeson, the snowy atmosphere of Berlin and the great car chases, then... You simply have a quality genre movie. (06/03/2011)

The final plot resolution is very interesting and not at all predictable. The action is scarce, but when it occurs, it has drive, and in fact, it is all somewhat “Bourne-like”, including the excellently utilized winter and freezing Berlin full of gray streets, dirt, homeless people, contrasted by luxury hotels, cars, and Arab sheikhs. Everything around the mysterious group of people is cold, raw, and uncompromising, while on the other hand, Liam Neeson is very down-to-earth and believable (as it’s his standard). They relied on a proven template from recent years, and they definitely did not spoil the result, which is a skillfully directed story with good performances. Bruno Ganz is monumental. (07/21/2011)