5/20/21 blog

Just a brief movie review

“To be Irish is to know the world will always break your heart.” — something similar said by the late Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan

Just watched the 2011 action thriller Unknown with Irish actor Liam Neeson as the lead character (I believe he first made his name as a stage actor in a performance of a famous Brian Friel play Translations before going to Hollywood). He seems good at action movies because he seems like a real adult and also expresses regret well and has a big physical presence, even if his acted American accent is a bit forced.

I liked the movie because it seems to be similar to Memento in that it deals with a central character with severe memory problems dealing with a past wife (it is not as good as Memento). The movie is set in Germany and suggests some of the country’s regret about its 20th-century past.

Neeson seems to have genuine sadness in his face possibly partly because he lost his wife, a British actress, when she had a skiing accident that lead to her death in 2009.