REVIEW: Unsurprising ‘Taken' showcases Neeson

"Taken" is by no means the best the spy/action genre has to offer - it's not as smart as Bourne nor as classy as Bond - but it'll do till something better comes along.

Bryan (Liam Neeson) used to work for the CIA. Now, he's retired and living in a tiny Los Angeles apartment so he can be closer to his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

Bryan's commitment to his job destroyed his marriage and isolated him from Kim for much of her childhood. Bryan is desperate to make up for lost time.

When Kim reveals she'll be spending the summer in France, Bryan is apprehensive. He isn't comfortable with her traveling on her own. His worst fears are realized when Kim is abducted only hours after arriving in Paris.

Relying on his keen instincts, lethal skills and some help from old CIA buddies, Bryan flies to Paris to begin the search for his daughter among an Albanian crime syndicate known for selling girls into the sex trade.

Produced by French director Luc Besson, best known for helming such hits as "The Professional" and "The Fifth Element," "Taken" is, like most things Besson touches, a fairly by-the-numbers, if adrenaline-fueled, thrill ride. For "Taken" to work, your disbelief must be suspended in a gargantuan way. (Bryan follows the clues to his daughter's whereabouts through the most tenuous of routes.)

But if you are able to overlook the unlikely coincidences, the lack of three-dimensionality for any character other than the lead, and some of the more unintentionally tongue-in-cheek sequences, the film is its own convoluted reward.

Much of the action in "Taken" works precisely because we've never seen the 50-something Neeson do anything like this. Neeson, who makes a surprisingly convincing one-man killing machine, manages to show psychological vulnerability even in a script that is merely functional.

If the film doesn't quite work, can we really fault him for wanting to have a bit of fun?

While Neeson's co-stars are little more than cardboard cutouts (especially Famke Janssen as his ex-wife), it is the villains who truly suffer - a small army of nondescript Eastern Europeans and Arabs included only so the screenwriter can include a rant on the state of illegal immigration in France.

"Taken" is surprisingly violent, both in the application and the outcome. One scene in particular, involving the wife of an old friend of Bryan's, is particularly astonishing.

Neeson's Bryan, who deals out death and vengeance without any moral reservation whatsoever, may be one of the most cold-blooded and ruthless heroes we've seen on screen in a long time.

But in allowing him to be so, the film doesn't insult the audience's ravenous hunger to see justice done. "Taken" pushes the limits of what we deem acceptable conduct for a hero and then seems to ask: Would you do any differently if it were your child?

You root for Bryan's maniacal bloodletting not because he's a trained killer but because he's a concerned father. We may not be able to relate to a CIA assassin, but we can empathize with the frantic parent of a kidnapped child.

TAKEN

Cast: Liam Neesom, Maggie Grace, Xander Berkeley, Famke Janssen, Jon Gries
Director: Pierre Morel
Playing at: Hollywood, Tinseltown, Carmike, Chapel Hill, Cinemark
Rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language)
Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

GRADE: B-