Liam Neeson Has Kicked Ass and 'Taken' Names

by Brett Parker

Liam Neeson is a distinguished actor of considerable masculine presence and invaluable intelligence. While he has dabbed in Hollywood pop from time to time, his forte is found in prestigious dramas that demand sophisticated and seasoned actors. It’s surprising, then, to see him as the hero in Taken, an action thrill ride that places him in the role of a gun-toting, bone-breaking, tech-savvy, car-crashing ex-CIA operative out to wreak havoc on his daughter’s kidnappers. This is a role we’d expect from an action figure like Jason Statham and not necessarily Neeson, which helps make the performance all the more thrilling. Neeson is so good, in fact, that we’re willing to overlook the fact that the film uses a grand social tragedy as a clothesline for a standard action plot.

When we first meet Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), he appears to be your average private citizen. He is a clean-cut man who lives by himself and shows warmth and kindness to the people around him. He attends the birthday party of his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), who is thrilled to see him, although his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) isn’t as welcoming. After the party, he throws a barbeque for buddies in his backyard. His close friend Sam (Leland Orser) offers him a job on a security team for a pop star performing in concert. “It’ll be like the old days,” Sam boasts. “Only no one gets killed!” Bryan adds.

It is revealed that Bryan is an ex-CIA agent retired from the field. His experiences have made him a walking warrior of skill and awareness, one that has alienated his ex-wife but tries to keep a strong relationship with his daughter. Bryan wants nothing more than an average life, but the government beast from within is awakened the fateful day when Kim is kidnapped in Paris. Kim and her cousin Amanda (Katie Cassidy) have traveled to Paris to follow a rock band across Europe, yet they are violently abducted from their hotel room the very afternoon they arrive off the plane. Bryan is able to hear the kidnapping during a phone call on Kim’s cell phone. He records the call with some of his old career gadgets and even speaks directly to Kim’s abductors (“I will look for you…I will find you…I will kill you!”)

After analyzing clues from the cell phone recording, with assistance from some old CIA contacts, Bryan discovers that Kim was kidnapped by Romanian gangsters who kidnap female tourists, drug them, and force them into prostitution. Bryan gathers his gear and is off to Paris to search for Kim, relying on his brilliant investigative skills and merciless combat training. It’s when Bryan infiltrates the seedy gangster world of human trafficking in which we realize just how deadly an agent he really is. Bryan shows no mercy towards his enemies, piling up dead bodies and wrecking buildings in hot pursuit of Kim’s abductors. This destructive behavior draws the attention of the French police, especially Bryan’s old associate, Jean Claude (Olivier Rabourdin). Can Bryan find Kim before the French authorities put a stop to his violent search?

Taken is an uneasy bonding between the tragedy of human trafficking and the exhilaration of a skilled action flick. On the one hand, the film is a vivid and sad look at the mechanisms of trafficking that has become an increasing issue in European countries. As Bryan penetrates further and further into his search for Kim, the camera also begins to peak into the dark depths of a perverse and unbearable world of corruption. Bryan witnesses drugged-up prostitutes too stoned to realize they are being pimped out in shabby brothels, virgins being auctioned off to rich business men in the basement of a ballroom party, and the startling ways criminals prey on these unfortunate tourists.

We can picture a grim and unflinching drama emerging from this subject matter, but Taken curiously seems more concerned with being an efficient slam-bang action ride. The action scenes are certainly top-notch, with plenty of car chases and fight scenes that will surely satisfy the Jason Bourne crowd. My heart began to sink, however, when I realized that the film is more nurturing towards its action plot then to the tragic developments of the trafficking plot. This is especially felt in the film’s final act, which goes into auto pilot and dissolves into a familiar stand-off between Bryan and the criminals guarding Kim, all with the usual stunts, brawls, and shoot-outs. There’s a certain cheapness in the film’s final scene, which is way to happy and upbeat considering all that’s gone before.

Still, it’s Liam Neeson’s performance that redeems the entertainment value of this film. Truth be told, I paid ten dollars to see Neeson smack around bad guys and I completely got my money’s worth. An aging veteran like Neeson is usually foreign to action roles like these; appearing on Broadway in The Crucible makes more sense. Yet his everyman frame brings a compelling conviction to the fight scenes. I was in absolute awe of Neeson as he twisted the bad guys into pretzels and dished out kung-fu punishments that make Jason Bourne look like a frat boy. I reveled in the moment where Bryan tells a key character, “I told you I’d find you.”

Neeson helps elevate the role and distracts us from just how implausible Bryan’s actions really are. As Bryan ends up in hostile and life-threatening situations, he escapes from them with a combination of superhuman skill and ridiculous luck. He appears to have that James Bond immunity towards death and entrapment. By film’s end, all he has to show for his ultraviolent journey is a scratch and a limp. Neeson brings great conviction to unconvincing situations.

So with this film, what have we learned? That there is yet to be a mainstream Hollywood film that deals head-on with the horrifying layers of human trafficking, no excuses. That Liam Neeson holds more testosterone than most action stars of today. That the Bourne series is the most influential action film of recent times. I wonder if action films will ever stray away from that herky-jerky grittiness so copied nowadays. I was reading an interview with director Stephen Sommers the other day. He promised that his upcoming G.I. Joe will be reminiscent of the James Bond escapist action circa Thunderball. I can’t wait.