Taken

Review by Jason Donner

 

Hot darn, I loved this movie.

Taken is an immensely satisfying and completely badass movie about a father (Liam Neeson) tracking down his daughter after she is kidnapped in Europe and sold into a human trafficking ring.  The father vows to use all of his special training as a special ops man to not only rescue his daughter, but also make the scum who took her rue the day they ever laid a finger on her.

It's classic revenge-flick stuff.  Beautiful!

This is a movie that has a simple single objective, gets there in a believable way, and doesn’t bother with niceties while it’s on its way there.  It doesn't bother with subplots or unimportant characters, everyone in the movie is there to serve a purpose and as soon as their purpose is completed, they don't stick around and become superfluous.

It's refreshing to see a movie have this level of focus.

Taken is there to do a job and it does it with efficiency and gusto making it one of the more enjoyable auctioneers of 2009.  A lot of that is owed to Liam Neeson who is terrific in this movie, turning in a performance rivaling his very best.  Casting an older man in this movie only adds to the genuineness of it all and really drives home the seriousness of the subject matter.

I honestly believe that if Taken had not communicated the level of seriousness it did about the daughter's situation, it would have been an unmitigated failure, but never once do we stop believing that the girl isn't in serious physical and mental danger.  This is a damsel in distress we want to get saved.

Taken does have some pretty obvious flaws and you have them paraded in front of your during the movie's first twenty minutes.  The minor characters, such as the father's ex-wife, are very poorly written and presented.  The father is supposed to be estranged and distance, but compared to the venomous ex he butts heads with, you can't help but feel sorry for the poor guy while the movie doesn't seem to want you to take his side.  It's very confusing why everyone hates on him so much.

Still, the laser pinpoint efficiency of this movie is amazing and the action and flow of the movie is impressive, gritty, and real.  Even though the situations often border on the ridiculous, Taken sells it with masterful direction and performances.

Taken is intensity captured on celluloid and that makes it a sight to behold.