Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. The crime drama Unknown begins with an outrageous premise and gets more ridiculous from there. Five men wake up in a locked warehouse. Some are bound or otherwise made immobile, some are injured, but all of them have severe memory loss, to the point where they can’t even remember their own names. They deduce that a kidnapping scenario has gone horribly wrong, that a gas tank stored in the warehouse leaked, knocking them all out and causing their hopefully temporary amnesia. What they don’t know is which of the group are the kidnappers and which are the hostages. The entire film becomes a race to figure out exactly what happened, who’s who, and whose memory will return first.
Unknown includes a whole lot of yelling, men attempting to show who’s the tougher guy (but not too tough, because no one wants to be labeled as one of the kidnappers), and tentative alliances between characters who seem fairly certain they are among the good guys. The silly factor of this film comes with way too convenient pieces of the puzzle dropping in right when they are needed. It’s similar, I suppose, to films featuring mentally challenged characters who are just smart enough to forward the plot when needed. The downfall of Unknown is by no means the actors’ faults. This is a surprisingly solid cast that includes Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, and Jeremy Sisto as the warehouse captives, as well as supporting roles from the always wacky Peter Stormare and Bridget Moynahan, as the wife of one of the kidnapping victims (of course, we don’t find out until its necessary to the plot).
The film is the feature directing debut from music video and commercial director Simon Brand, and there’s no doubt the guy knows how to move a camera through tight quarters (with help from Brick cinematographer Steve Yedlin) and keep the tension level high (mostly with the aforementioned yelling). But it’s the by-the-number screenplay (from first-timer Matthew Waynee) that sinks this vessel. Most of the plot consists of moments like this:
“We need this piece of information right now.”
“Okay, let’s have one of the characters remember it.”
“Done. Now everybody yell!”
I’m paraphrasing, of course. But you catch my drift. I was in the mood to like this film. These are all actors I really enjoy watching, and the chance to just watch them bounce off each other in an aggressive, fast-moving storyline sounded like fun. But by the end, I just wanted it done, especially after about the second false ending. I’m not sure there were just one or two things that could have been changed to make Unknown a better movie. More than likely this decent premise turned horribly wrong was terminally ill from the first draft, but for those Greg Kinnear completists out there, it’s something to distract you until his vastly superior turn in Fast Food Nation hits theatres later this month.
Capone
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