Movie Review: Unknown (2011)

The premise of this movie is that a man wakes up after four days in a coma (due to a near-fatal car accident in Berlin, Germany) only to discover that someone else has seamlessly assumed his identity. Not even his wife will acknowledge that he is who he says he is. Even though many people are independently able to convince him that he is confused, he is persistent in trying to establish the veracity of his claims. Eventually they start getting to him. He's almost convinced of his mistake when an assassin comes after him at the hospital. He escapes the assassin, but now he's more sure than ever that his identity is being stolen.

This movie has a few twists before you reach the end. I correctly guessed part of the mystery, but not all of it (we'll say 1 out of 3). Even though there are times when the plot strains credulity [1], the ending is satisfying. Liam Neeson does a pretty good job as a confused, nerdy biochemist. The other aspects of his character probably deserved a younger actor. Ultimately the movie was intriguing, but not mind-blowing.

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Notes:

[1] e.g. despite the fact that he doesn't speak or understand German very well, he manages to get around and make friends with relative ease.

Image attributions:

Berlin at sunset is by , available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Über den Dächern von Berlin.jpg.