Themes: Hostage Situations, Race Against Time, Amnesia
Main Cast: James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Jeremy Sisto
Release Year: 2006
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
Five men desperately try to recover their memories and piece together the traumatic events of the past several days in this independent thriller. In an abandoned warehouse, a handful of men slowly regain consciousness, but they’ve been stricken with amnesia and have no idea who they are, where they are, or what has happened to them. All five seem to have been in some sort of serious scuffle; one is tied up (Joe Pantoliano), another has been handcuffed (Jeremy Sisto), a third has a broken nose (Greg Kinnear), and the other two have their share of scrapes and bruises (Jim Caviezel and Barry Pepper). As the men compare the tiny shards of memory they can pull from their minds, one finds a newspaper from two days before which features a front-page story about the kidnapping of a wealthy and well-known businessman. The men begin to suspect that they were involved with the kidnapping, but no one is sure if they’re on the right or wrong side of the law – or if one of them might happen to be the victim. The first feature film from veteran music video director Simon Brand, Unknown also stars Peter Stormare, Bridget Moynahan and Clayne Crawford. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Simon Brand's Unknown is the same type of thriller as the Saw and Cube movies: a group of people wake up imprisoned in a location unfamiliar to them (in this case, a warehouse), unable to remember how they got there (or in this case, who they are), and find themselves thrust into mortal danger. Where Unknown separates itself from these films is that there are remnants of a power dynamic between them -- some are freed, some handcuffed, and one is bleeding to death. Yet this alone is not enough to help figure out who's righteous and who's corrupt. Robbed of their previous motives, and even their personalities, they're left with only their essential bedrock morality to navigate this challenge, sensing that any trust they build could crumble the moment their memory returns. The thing is, it's impossible to know who's telling the truth about still being in the dark -- and who might be manipulating the situation for his own gain, or to hide his culpability from the others. Unknown is an effective frame story with a delicious setup, but it misses an opportunity to be more clever. Screenwriter Matt Waynee gets down the shifting loyalties of a group of people trying to suss each other out under dire circumstances, and the all-star cast gives a game effort. But the more the secrets reveal themselves, the more pedestrian the details feel. And where Waynee's script isn't as competent is the way it eventually assigns roles to the unnamed ensemble. By the time the audience is supposed to know who's who, there's still some amount of confusion because Waynee hasn't skillfully handled the reveal. Unknown is not unmemorable, but the filmmakers definitely could have milked some more conundrums and existential dilemmas out of the concept. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Shannon Makhanian - Casting, Bobby Schwartz - Co-producer, Ross M. Dinerstein - Co-producer, Russ Chasney - Co-producer, John Yull - Co-producer, Jane Anderson - Costume Designer, Simon Brand - Director, Paul Trejo - Editor, Luis Carballar - Editor, Frederick Levy - Executive Producer, Cedric Jeanson - Executive Producer, Randolph De Lano - Executive Producer, Tamara De Lano - Executive Producer, Ariel Veneziano - Executive Producer, Angelo Milli - Composer (Music Score), Chris Jones - Production Designer, Steve Yedlin - Cinematographer, Rick Lashbrook - Producer, Darby Parker - Producer, John S. Schwartz - Producer, Patrick M. Griffith - Sound/Sound Designer, John C. Taylor - Sound/Sound Designer, Matt Waynee - Screenwriter
