TAKEN--I WILL TEAR DOWN THE EIFFEL TOWER IF I HAVE TO
Written: Mar 15 '09 (Updated Mar 15 '09)
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Pros: Liam Neeson, Liam Neeson, and three times Liam Neeson; compelling story; great action; Olivier Rabourdin
Cons: Bloody contrived, rather violent; Neeson the hero engaged in non-heroic activity
The Bottom Line: All hail the electrifying Liam Neeson, who single handedly saves Pierre Morel's kidnap thriller TAKEN from being a completely generic film
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| jarvococker's Full Review: Taken |
The new action thriller TAKEN is built around a ridiculous conceit. When his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped shortly after travelling to Paris, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has the savvy and resources to punt over to France and go commando on the Albanian perpetrators involved. Turns out--no contrivance here whatsoever--Mills is a retired CIA operative, which gives him what he describes to an adversary as "skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." Imagine if Mills had been a retired chef? There'd be no movie.
But there is a movie, it's called TAKEN, and despite a hodgepodge of narrative inanities the film manages to be taut and immensely entertaining. Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed with smooth, kinetic efficiency by Pierre Morel, the movie often feels like a throwback to those alpha male, action blow em ups from the 80s, in particular the charmingly egregious "Commando." Toss aside the military dictatorship storyline in favor of a more topical--and nastier--foray into sex trafficking and the filmmakers may have had a straight to dvd release starring Armand Assante. However, Morel and co. hit casting paydirt with the appearance of the great Liam Neeson, who not only has the thespian chops but the physically dominating presence to pull off such a performance, and the Oscar nominee runs away with the role without the slightest whiff of star vanity. The one drawback to Neeson's participation is the film's outcome is of course a given--the bloke saved a thousand Polish Jews in "Schindler's List." More impressive, he saved Nell! Do you think he has a remote chance at rescuing his daughter? Does he bollocks.
Nevertheless, the fun is in the journey to screen salvation, and since when has logic ever stopped Luc Besson from propagating his more outlandish tales? When TAKEN opens, Bryan Mills is given the most conventional of characterizations. Retired and relocated to Los Angeles so he can patch up what's left of a strained relationship with his daughter, Mills has his work cut out for him. On Kim's birthday, he earnestly buys her a karaoke machine; she receives a horse from her rich stepfather (Xander Berkely). His ex wife Lenore (Famke Janssen, completely underutilized) still hasn't forgiven Mills for being more committed to his career than he was to his family. When Kim seeks Mills' permission to vacation in Paris with a girlfriend for the summer, he grudgingly accepts.
Oops! No sooner has Kim landed in Paris than she and her equally bubbly mate are kidnapped. In one of the more implausible moments of the film, Kim just so happens to be on the phone with Mills when their holiday apartment is invaded. As ludicrously contrived as the sequence is, there's also an eerie strain of dread to the proceedings, as Mills helplessly listens to his daughter's abduction. The cherry on the foreboding top is when one of Kim's assailants gets on the phone afterwards, his heavy breathing mocking Mills on the other end. Piecing together clues left by Kim and the kidnapper's accent (Huh?), Mills discovers those responsible for his daughter's disappearance belong to an Albanian network of sex traffickers. Good thing Lenore's ex husband is so rich, Mills is on a private plane to Paris first thing to retrieve Kim. By any means necessary. And by that I mean wicked violently. And with extreme prejudice.
Early in TAKEN, as Mills drives his daughter to the airport they share a conversation about what he did in the CIA. "I was a preventer," Mills uncomfortably admits. "What did you prevent?" Kim asks. "Bad things from happening," he replies. Very bad things happen to very bad people in rapid succession once Mills enters the dragon's lair in Paris. Behold Mills the jilted father and husband in Los Angeles morph into Mills the lone horseman of the Albanian apocalypse in Paris. As a film TAKEN likewise (And not so subtlety) transforms into one action centerpiece after another, with a mounting bodycount to rival anything in a Schwarzenegger film. In one of the better sequences, Mills passes himself off as a corrupt official raising the bribery rates on an Albanian house of ill repute before laying the place to waste. And in one of the most shocking moments of the film, Mills shoots the innocent wife of a corrupt, former ally (Olivier Rabourdin, wonderfully duplicitous). The filmmakers may be offering a not so veiled criticism of US diplomatic aggression, but under a smokescreen of domestic duty which lessons its impact.
As aforementioned, TAKEN is a triumphant showcase for Liam Neeson, in a performance that could have easily descended into action caricature. While Neeson sensationally acquits himself in the more physically vigorous aspects of the film, the actor deftly illustrates a computer like intelligence as he single handedly navigates through this sordid puzzle (Letting himself get browbeaten by a hard edged pimp so that he can bug him). Even better are the quiet moments when Neeson allows his character's personal investment in the proceedings to sift through the seemingly invincible exterior (Devoting the time to nurse a victim forced into drug addiction and prostitution who is wearing Kim's jacket back to health). When Mills evades a French cop secretly tailing him and flips him the bird as a kiss off, it's enough to stand up and applaud. This doesn't absolve Mills of the more sadistic elements of his pursuit--there are plenty--but Neeson never lets audiences forget this is a father whose daughter has been placed in the most reprehensible and merciless of underground webs.
While TAKEN is essentially the Liam Neeson show, there are a few supporting highlights. As aforementioned, Rabourdin is terrific as the two faced Jean Claude. Leland Orser also makes his few minutes onscreen count as a friend and former colleague of Mills' who proves the staunchest of allies when Kim goes missing.
I mentioned earlier the case could be justifiably made that TAKEN takes potshots at American hostility abroad. Even so, the filmmakers are thankfully not arrogant enough to let themselves off the hook. What does it say that former French intelligence officials and wealthy businessmen are presented as capitalizing on the exploitation industry Mills must infiltrate? There's a tangible critique on the part of Morel, Besson and co. on what is a nightmarish social network thriving in the world today, but the message gets lost in Neeson's heroic, bloody crusade to save his darling girl. Regardless of flaws the film barely offers to conceal, TAKEN is an involving and often electrifying thriller that owes much of its success to a sensational performance by Liam Neeson.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Member: marcelo deugarte
Location: bethesda, md
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