Film: Taken
Cast includes: Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List)
Genre: Suspense thriller
In brief: We meet Bryan, a retired CIA agent, struggling to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter, Kim. He agonizes over exactly which karaoke machine to buy for her birthday. When he shows up at her birthday party, an extravagant affair that rivals The Great Gatsby, he can’t seem to get anything quite right. Kim loves her karaoke machine… for about a minute… until her stepfather trots out his present for Kimie, a beautiful horse. Kimie squeals with delight and runs to her new horse, leaving the karaoke machine… and her dad in the dust. But all is not lost. Kimie soon calls Dad and invites him to lunch… just the two of them. However when Kim shows up, she arrives with mom, The Wicked Witch of the West. Alas it was a set-up. Kimie needs Dad’s signature on a permission form so she can go to Paris with her 17-year-old friend for the summer. When Bryan says he wants to think about it, Mom and Kimie storm out of the restaurant because Dad is being impossible, as usual. Bryan can’t get anything right.
Or perhaps he can. Days later he shows up on the doorstep with the signed permission form and a Europe-friendly cell phone programmed with his number. The deal is that Kim is to phone Dad when she arrives… and everyday after that. With hugs and kisses, Kim agrees to Dad’s conditions… even though Dad is paranoid. This more-or-less wraps up the character-driven part of the movie. The suspense begins when Kim and Amanda meet Peter at the airport in Paris and agree to share a cab. It goes without saying that Peter is not quite as sweet and friendly as he seems. When Dad finally manages to reach the illusive Kim on her cell phone, the abduction of the two girls is in progress. Without missing a beat, Dad goes into full CIA mode even before the abduction is complete. There’s little doubt that Dad will find Kim and bring the evildoers to justice, although justice won’t necessarily be in a court of law.
Taken can’t quite decide if it’s a character-driven story or a full-out action-suspense thriller. It’s most successful side is the action-suspense part, although even that needs to be viewed with an uncritical eye. I found myself remembering those kid’s puzzles you often find on diner placemats… “find 20 animals hiding in plain sight in this drawing of a garden.” The plot detail bloopers are all hiding in plain sight everywhere. The real mystery is how this movie got a PG-13 rating.
0 popped kernels
Unpopped kernels for the awful script that made no sense at all. None of it worked. Why did Liam agree to do this one?
