At the Movies with Fatwayne

  Liam Neeson is back in action again and this time out he isn’t searching for his kidnapped daughter (Taken). He is Dr. Martin Harris who is a botonist and is just arriving in Berlin to participate in a biotechnology summit. He is accompanied by his wife, Liz (January Jones). Upon arriving at their hotel, Martin realizes that his briefcase containing his passport, speech and other valuables was inadvertently left in the taxi. While Liz checks in for them Martin hails another taxi and is on his way back to the airport to find his case. This is where his troubles begin as the cab is involved in an accident and Martin is almost killed. His life is saved by the taxi driver Gina, (Diane Kruger) but he has no recollection of this as he is in a coma. Four days later he awakens but without any idea of what has happened to him. As his memories slowly start to return he goes to the hotel to find Liz only to discover that she has no idea who he is and, even worse, there is a man with her that claims that he is Dr. Martin Harris and has all of the identification to prove it.

Martin will spend the rest of the film attempting to discover who he is and how his life has seemingly been hijacked by his wife of seven years and this stranger pretending to be him. Or perhaps he is suffering from delusions brought on by the head injuries sustained in the accident. As he begins to doubt what is real and what is not he is accosted by a killer and having survived the assault realizes that he must be correct in his assumptions otherwise why would anyone want him dead.

It soon becomes apparent that the road to recovering his memory is fraught with many dangers. This, of course, is what makes it so fun for us. Neeson’s demeanor is much like he proffered in Taken but that is not a bad thing, is it? You just can’t help feeling sorry for the man as he wanders around the snowy streets of Berlin all alone and trying desperately to understand what is happening to him. One thing that caused me to wonder was where did all of his pocket money from. Identification, credit cards, etc. were all contained in his valise. He goes through an awful lot of cash which I would consider an overlooked but conspicuous plot hole.

This turns out to be a suspenseful thriller with an ending that will surprise you. I like Neeson and I liked his latest movie.

Rated  -  PG13  -

Fatwayne’s Rating  

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