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"I don't know who you
are. I don't know what you want. If you are
looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't
have money.
But what I do have are
a very particular set of skills. Skills that
make me a nightmare for people like you. If
you let my daughter go now, that'll be the
end of it. If you don't, I will look for
you, I will find you, and I will kill you."
I wish I had a special set of skills that
would send shivers down the spines of bad
guys. It must be nice to be able to
walk into a den of muscular thugs knowing
that you can take them all down with the
speed of Jason Bourne and the ease of James
Bond. That is essentially what Brian
Mills (Neeson) must do to retrieve his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Grace), after she is
abducted by Albanian sex slave traders
during her vacation in Paris.
The film's opening
scenes tell us that Mills is an
ex-government agent, a "preventer" he calls
himself when explaining his past. He
prevented bad things from happening.
He has an infinite attention to details.
He is devoted to his daughter, who lives
with his ex wife and her new, extremely
wealthy husband.
When Kim takes a
trip to Paris with her best friend, Amanda,
she makes the mistake of befriending the
wrong man -- a man who immediately calls his
nefarious employers and makes them aware of
the girls' location.
While hiding from
the abductors, Kim speaks with her father,
allowing him to gain vital clues to the
kidnappers' identities and whereabouts.
And so, with the French authorities claiming
Mills has less than 96 hours to find her,
the hunt begins.
Now, "Taken" has
many things going for it... First and
foremost, the premise, despite some familiar
notes, is irresistibly riveting. The
plot may be simple, but it is packed with
inherent tension. Also, the
performances in the lead roles are
emotionally charged. Neeson is
terrific as the coldly determined father.
Grace bounces with ease from blissfully
naive to intensely terrified.
I was also
tremendously aware of the desaturated
palette used by director, Pierre Morel.
It is a nice touch that highlights the seedy
underbelly of the typically romanticized
French capital.
Unfortunately,
"Taken" has too many flaws to rank as a
must-see movie. Some of the action
gets repetitive. How many
times can you watch Liam Neeson win a fist
fight?
Some of the
supporting performances are weak too.
Famke Janssen isn't given much to do, but
she doesn't do anything significant with her
character in the limited screen time she has. The bad guys are also very
two dimensional and dwindle into clichéd
caricatures on too many occasions.
Nevertheless,
"Taken" deserves to be seen. It is a
taut thriller that, despite playing
predominantly by the numbers, manages to
elicit nail-biting excitement and genuine
tension. It feels a little like a
combination of Harrison Ford's 1988 film,
"Frantic" and Val Kilmer's 2004 film,
"Spartan". If you enjoyed both of
those movies, then this is definitely for
you.
©
Written by TC Candler
Email Me About This Review |
Director
Pierre
Morel
Cast
Liam
Neeson
Maggie Grace
Famke Janssen
Xander Berkeley
Katie Cassidy
Holly Valance
Running Time
94m
Rated
PG13
Official
Website
http://www.takenmovie.com/
Maggie Grace - "Taken" |
