By Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
February 16, 2006
Taking a cue from Memento, Unknown uses flashbacks to tell its story, which is full of intrigue. A group of seemingly unrelated men (played by Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Jim Caviezel, Berry Pepper, and Jeremy Sisto) find themselves in an abandoned warehouse, and each one claims he is suffering from amnesia.
Somehow, they had been involved in a kidnapping plot, but when they come to, the men have no clue which of them are the perpetrators and which are the victims. The film has the makings of a convincing thriller, but where it fails is in its attempt to be overly clever. For a suspense story to work, the filmmaker has to be willing to divulge a few clues along the way. (For instance, how did the men all lose their memories at the same time?)
The problem is that Matthew Waynee’s script is long on words, but short on meaning, leaving the viewer impatient and frustrated long before the film fades to black.
