Movie Review: Taken

About 20 minutes into Taken, the new Liam Neeson kidnap movie, Bryan (Neeson’s character) explains to the Eastern European thugs who have just snatched his daughter, “I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you… I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

That pretty much sums it up.

There’s no fine nuance, no highbrow intellectual theme behind Taken. It is a straightforward action movie that is perhaps best viewed as a raw kinetic combination of Ransom and Spartan. Bryan is a former government operative (a “preventer,” as he calls himself) whose long years of service to his country has alienated him from his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and wife Lenore (Famke Janssen). The first 20 minutes or so are aimed to set up a complex relationship between the three, but it’s largely irrelevant — all we need know is that Bryan is a seemingly declawed lion who worships his young daughter. Picture a taller Jack Bauer with a not-so-great American accent. Note that the daughter here is also named Kim. Coincidence?

It doesn’t take long for this overprotective parent with a “certain set of skills” to put them to good use once his daughter is kidnapped in Paris. Bryan is off on the trail, torturing, beating and killing bad guys in a relentless hunt for Kim. There are a few minor twists and turns but nothing the observant viewer cannot handle.

It’s a simple movie, eminently predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. Produced by Luc Besson, it is appropriately kinetic and cheesy and exciting, though with levels of violence that are at times unpalatable. Anyone who has ever played the thought experiment of “how far would I go if my daughter were kidnapped” can probably guess as to what Bryan does. Neeson doesn’t hold back with his acting, throwing himself into action scene after scene, even though the material is limited. The result is a bit of hollowness to the film, as if it searches within itself for something more substantive without a clear idea of what it wants to accomplish. Still, Taken at least delivers what it promises. This is not The Searchers, but it’s a no-surprises kidnapping hunt movie with solid production values.

P.S. I guess one of the hurdles for me was conceiving of Maggie Grace from Lost as an 18 year old. She was born in 1983, people. Still, she does a fine job overall. Maybe she’s typecast now?