UNKNOWN (2006) **1/2 James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Jeremy Sisto, Peter Stormare. Mark Boone Junior. (Dir: Simon Brand)
Low-rent pulp fiction: "The Usual Suspects" meets "Reservoir Dogs"
Five men find themselves slowly awakening from a chemical leak and discover they are more or less imprisoned in a grimy warehouse in the middle of nowhere with little recollection of how they got there, and more importantly who they are. So begins the somewhat clever yet overtly familiar slice of low-rent pulp fiction from novice screenwriter Matthew Waynee and director Brand.
Among the quintet of disgruntled alpha males are Caviezel whose character seems the most central and his jigsaw memory slowly puts into place if he is a victim or a criminal; Kinnear is a snarky no-nonsense type with a quick temper; Pantoliano showcases his usual brand of loud-mouth knuckleheadedness; Pepper is the more calculating type wavering on the fence to whose allegiance he should stick with to remain alive; Sisto is a bloodied mess handcuffed and the more-or-less distaff, scruffy version of Tim Roth's "Mr. Orange" in "Reservoir Dogs" (which the film emulates with echoes of "The Usual Suspects" and for its nasty set piece, "Saw").
What the five do know is that they have only a few hours to determine who is who and what happened before the main thug (veteran bad dude Stormare as the brains of the outfit for the kidnapping of two businessmen in a ransom scheme) arrives to finish the job.
For the most part the twisty-turny plotting and acerbic dialogue crackle like a teetering FM station trying to get a solid connection with occasional breaks of clarity and the direction is tight enough in its claustrophobic storytelling with MTV-style flashback editing and camera-work by Luis Carballar & Paul Trejo and Steve Yedlin, respectively.
By the film's knotty series of endings is a tad clunky and some of the acting to that point is uneven (well some of the actors don't get enough screen time to wit Sisto's bleeding stuck pig character) but for those who like the noir with a nice twinge of flavor by all means check it out. The others can relax if they've seen any similar genres in the last decade.
Low-rent pulp fiction: "The Usual Suspects" meets "Reservoir Dogs"
Five men find themselves slowly awakening from a chemical leak and discover they are more or less imprisoned in a grimy warehouse in the middle of nowhere with little recollection of how they got there, and more importantly who they are. So begins the somewhat clever yet overtly familiar slice of low-rent pulp fiction from novice screenwriter Matthew Waynee and director Brand.
Among the quintet of disgruntled alpha males are Caviezel whose character seems the most central and his jigsaw memory slowly puts into place if he is a victim or a criminal; Kinnear is a snarky no-nonsense type with a quick temper; Pantoliano showcases his usual brand of loud-mouth knuckleheadedness; Pepper is the more calculating type wavering on the fence to whose allegiance he should stick with to remain alive; Sisto is a bloodied mess handcuffed and the more-or-less distaff, scruffy version of Tim Roth's "Mr. Orange" in "Reservoir Dogs" (which the film emulates with echoes of "The Usual Suspects" and for its nasty set piece, "Saw").
What the five do know is that they have only a few hours to determine who is who and what happened before the main thug (veteran bad dude Stormare as the brains of the outfit for the kidnapping of two businessmen in a ransom scheme) arrives to finish the job.
For the most part the twisty-turny plotting and acerbic dialogue crackle like a teetering FM station trying to get a solid connection with occasional breaks of clarity and the direction is tight enough in its claustrophobic storytelling with MTV-style flashback editing and camera-work by Luis Carballar & Paul Trejo and Steve Yedlin, respectively.
By the film's knotty series of endings is a tad clunky and some of the acting to that point is uneven (well some of the actors don't get enough screen time to wit Sisto's bleeding stuck pig character) but for those who like the noir with a nice twinge of flavor by all means check it out. The others can relax if they've seen any similar genres in the last decade.