Weekly Review -- A pretentious mish-mash

Unknown (2006) -- A strange, gray, claustrophobic piece, this film by Simon Brand popped up on DVD without hype. This is one of those films that a viewer becomes eager about once they read the plotline and cast list; then comes a period of time when the viewer keeps wondering about wherever the film has disappeared; and then, one day, we see it on the shelves of our local video store and wonder why we had not heard anything since the day we started looking forward to it. A group of men -- played by Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear and Jeremy Sisto, among others -- wake up in an abandoned warehouse and discover that they all suffer from amnesia. As they are trying to find out why and how they got there, they are not sure which one of them can be trusted and which one may be responsible for their predicament. In the meantime, the police are conducting an investigation... The film boasts a story with more twists and turns than The Usual Suspects and Memento put together, as well as a tough-guy-bonanza cast. Unfortunately, what it does not boast is a sense of direction and character backgrounds that would make it irresistible. It is also too insular for its own good, turning the warehouse into a lackluster prison, rather than using the men's captivity to turn their survival instinct up a notch. Another minus is that the film lacks engaging characters to make us empathize with their plight. These guys are not terribly interesting to watch, since they occasionally seem like they are sleepwalking through their ordeal. Still, there are some good performances, particularly Caviezel's portrayal of a deeply conflicted man and Kinnear's portrayal of an average Joe who will cross any limits for the sake of self-preservation. Overall, the film is not your standard thriller, but it makes a mistake of lagging its suspense to the farthest realms of the viewers' patience, while not giving us a reward in the form of intriguing characters and menacing locales.

5/10