Cast: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Xander Berkeley, Katie Cassidy; Director: Pierre Morel; Producer: Luc Besson; Screenwriters: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen; Music: Nathaniel Mechaly; Editor: Frederic Thoraval; Genre: Horror/ Suspenser; Cinematography: Frank Lebreton; Distributor: Viva Film; Location: USA/ France; Running Time: 93 min;
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
Retired government operative Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) seems perfectly content grilling barbecues with his chums and fellow retirees to while away inactive years. In truth, Mills nothing more and nothing less than to be close to his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), so he moves to Los Angeles where Kim lives with his divorcee mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her effortlessly wealthy husband. But Kim—naive and somewhat bratty—wants only her father’s signature to allow her to spend a summer in Paris with some “cousins”. Mills is not about to give his permission, knowing how bad the “world” is, but later on relents after some cutting remarks from Lenore, as well as tears from daughter Kim. So he signs the permit, on condition that Kim call him up everyday. Soon Mills discovers a map showing the route Kim and her companions were to take; it turns out they are going to follow a rock band across the continent. Mills confronts ex-wife Lenore who admits she knows everything; besides, Mills has signed the permit. Mills’ nose for disaster proves keen. Upon landing in Paris, Kim and companion Amanda (Katie Cassidy) are befriended by young French guy speaking English with a charming accent. They share a cab to the flat the two girls would be staying, and even agree to go out that very night. A few minutes later, as Kim is on the phone with Mills, armed men barge into the flat and kidnap Amanda and Kim. As Mills is to discover soon enough, the two are now with an Albanian women-trafficking syndicate who kidnap young women and turn them into prostitutes. Mills then embarks on his relentless chase to rescue Kim.
Taken is an enjoyable movie from the technical point of view. It’s well-crafted, lending a lacquer of credibility to an obviously ludicrous plot, thanks largely to Liam Neeson who plays the spy-father role with beastly ferocity and focused anger. Director Pierre Morel shows no let up in bringing to life the fictional genius of writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, the real masterminds behind this cat-and-mouse chase. If you don’t mind leaving behind your skeptical instincts when you go to see this movie, you might even like it, as most likely you’ll be rooting for Brian Mills to rescue his virgin-daughter at all cost. To get the bad guys out of the way, the (super) hero uses every trick in the spy’s manual: eavesdropping on telephones, psywar, car chases, mind-reading, torture, carnapping, and killing everyone who gets in the way! The bad guys, on the other hand, are so stupid and inept that one Hollywood critic describes them as “walking showcases of testosterone gone bad.” The conclusion offers a resolution to the main storyline, although it asks that you overlook the loose ends.
The questions that the film’s plot prompts in the viewer but are squelched by the blinding velocity of the action nonetheless haunt you as you come out of the theater. Why? Because the theme touches on the high cost of parental devotion and filial disobedience. What father would go that far, killing people to save a bratty daughter? Is he making up for lost time—time he would have spent with her when she was growing up but instead spent elsewhere killing people? And now, to save her, is it okay for him to kill still more people, thus taking the law into his own hands? The daughter would have learned her lesson after going through that ordeal—and being sold to porcine sheik— but what happens? After a few hugs, thank yous, I love yous, blah-blah-blah, daughter rides off with indulgent mother in her timorous step-father’s limousine, gleefully waving at the real father who must queue for a cab. Well, at least the real father has the dignity to decline a free ride—that’s superhuman. But the father is not simply being superhuman here, he is almost divine in his omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, owing to his years steeped in espionage. And he has a boundless capacity for forgiving the almost prodigal daughter. Superhuman father comes to the rescue with love and nary a glitch—without even wearing a mask and a red cape.
CINEMA gives this an R-14 rating, for the benefit of parents and children alike, for the simple fact that syndicate men really do lurk about waiting for naïve women to ensnare. Human trafficking is a reality in our world--as the father in this film insists on. It is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Considered a modern-day form of slavery, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world and is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest, after the drug-trade. So girls, beware. The next victim could be you, and your father would be helpless—unless your father is James Bond.
Cast: Renee Zellweger; Director: Jonas Elmer; Producers: Paul Brooks, Tracey E. Edmonds, Phyllis Laing, Andrew Paquin, Peter Safran, Darryl Taja; Screenwriters: Ken Rance, C. Jay Cox; Music: John Swihart; Editor: Troy Takaki; Genre: Romantic Comedy; Cinematography: Chris Seager; Distributor: Viva Films; Location: Los Angeles, California, USA; Running Time: 96 min.;
