Movies
Director: Simon Brand
Screenwriter: Matthew Waynee
Starring: James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Barry Pepper, Joe Pantoliano, Jeremy Sisto
Running time: 82 minutes
Certificate: 18
Trailer: WMP / Realplayer / Quicktime
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Most of us see eyes that haven’t quite woken up, eyebrows in need of some serious attention and a complexion that could do with a fortnight in the Caribbean. However, for reasons known only to screenwriter Matthew Waynee, every time someone looks in the mirror in Unknown, he has a head-spinning flashback to the life he’s bursting his major arteries to remember. Yes, it’s that sort of film.
Five men wake up to find themselves locked in a factory. After a chemical accident they have lost their memories: they have no idea who they are or how they got there. One (Pantoliano) is tied up; another (Sisto) is handcuffed and slowly bleeding to death; the other three (Caviezel, Kinnear, Pepper) are left to lock horns in pursuit of alpha male status. They find some newspaper clippings and manage to deduce that, while two of the group have been kidnapped, the other three are in cohorts with the kidnappers. But who are the good guys, and who are the baddies? And how should the forgetful five react when their captors – or perhaps their bosses - return to deal with them?
Just as its characters spend most of the film fumbling for their memories, Unknown spends most of its 81 minutes fumbling for a purpose. It raises questions about identity, attachment and the nature of friendship but never attempts to answer them. This is the sort of film where chest-beating macho types realise that they need to pull together after hearing a mawkish childhood anecdote from a man on his deathbed. Director Brand eventually manages to eke some tension from the potentially fruitful situation, but only after a bevy of deeply tedious sequences built solely on shouting, swearing and gratuitously shaky camerawork. Unknown isn’t a terrible film, but it’s like a Swiss finishing school run by Jodie Marsh: bloody pointless. That its best line is "I got you pegged as Richard. ‘Cause you seem like a dick to me." tells you everything you need to know.
There are two twists at the denouement: one is potent, if a little convenient, and the other stretches the film’s frayed credulity to its limit. We’re not left trying to piece together the fragments of the plot; we’re not even inspired to analyse whether each character made the right choices while he was imprisoned; instead we find ourselves asking why on earth an actor as talented as Greg Kinnear chose to follow Little Miss Sunshine with this tepid potboiler.
Screenwriter: Matthew Waynee
Starring: James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Barry Pepper, Joe Pantoliano, Jeremy Sisto
Running time: 82 minutes
Certificate: 18
Trailer: WMP / Realplayer / Quicktime
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Most of us see eyes that haven’t quite woken up, eyebrows in need of some serious attention and a complexion that could do with a fortnight in the Caribbean. However, for reasons known only to screenwriter Matthew Waynee, every time someone looks in the mirror in Unknown, he has a head-spinning flashback to the life he’s bursting his major arteries to remember. Yes, it’s that sort of film.
Five men wake up to find themselves locked in a factory. After a chemical accident they have lost their memories: they have no idea who they are or how they got there. One (Pantoliano) is tied up; another (Sisto) is handcuffed and slowly bleeding to death; the other three (Caviezel, Kinnear, Pepper) are left to lock horns in pursuit of alpha male status. They find some newspaper clippings and manage to deduce that, while two of the group have been kidnapped, the other three are in cohorts with the kidnappers. But who are the good guys, and who are the baddies? And how should the forgetful five react when their captors – or perhaps their bosses - return to deal with them?
Just as its characters spend most of the film fumbling for their memories, Unknown spends most of its 81 minutes fumbling for a purpose. It raises questions about identity, attachment and the nature of friendship but never attempts to answer them. This is the sort of film where chest-beating macho types realise that they need to pull together after hearing a mawkish childhood anecdote from a man on his deathbed. Director Brand eventually manages to eke some tension from the potentially fruitful situation, but only after a bevy of deeply tedious sequences built solely on shouting, swearing and gratuitously shaky camerawork. Unknown isn’t a terrible film, but it’s like a Swiss finishing school run by Jodie Marsh: bloody pointless. That its best line is "I got you pegged as Richard. ‘Cause you seem like a dick to me." tells you everything you need to know.
There are two twists at the denouement: one is potent, if a little convenient, and the other stretches the film’s frayed credulity to its limit. We’re not left trying to piece together the fragments of the plot; we’re not even inspired to analyse whether each character made the right choices while he was imprisoned; instead we find ourselves asking why on earth an actor as talented as Greg Kinnear chose to follow Little Miss Sunshine with this tepid potboiler.
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