Preview: Taken

Liam Neeson stars in the latest from action auteur Luc Besson.

Jedi Master, Dark Knight mentor and Scottish freedom fighter Liam Neeson returns to the screen in Taken, a kidnapping/revenge adventure produced and written by 90s action maestro Luc Besson (Leon, The Fifth Element). Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former CIA black ops commando who tracks down the Albanian criminals that kidnapped his daughter (Lost’s Maggie Grace) into a sex-slave ring. Bryan travels to France to find his daughter and, like the moody poster implies, exact bloody revenge. Also appearing are Famke Janssem (Goldeneye) as Bryan’s estranged ex-wife and Xander Berkeley (Gattica) as her new husband. Further complicating matters, Mills has just 96 hours to find his daughter or risk losing her forever within the netherworld of international human trafficking.

Though the film is directed by former cinematographer Pierre Morel (The Transporter), judging from the setup and the trailer it’s hard not to see the film as a classic Besson production, from the almost larger-than-life proagonist attempting to rescue a emperiled woman down to the underworld-of-Paris setting. In his early career Besson established himself as a modern Marcel Carne, making gritty films centered on character but that carried enough atmosphere to make their settings crucial in defining the stories told within them. As Carne had in Port of Shadows and Daybreak, Besson manipulated texture and lighting in his films Subway and Nikita, creating environments that embraced American suspense movie tropes without sacrificing a French cinematic voice. Along the way he made international movie stars of his two leading men, Christopher Lambert (Highlander) and Jean Reno (Ronin).

But Besson’s later career making American films was less rewarding. After 1993’s masterful Leon (released in the United States under the bland title The Professional), a series of disappointing but larger budget productions followed throughout the decade, including 1997’s poorly received The Fifth Element and 1999’s flop biopic The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. A 2001 Jet Li vehicle, Kiss of the Dragon, failed to interest American audiences, and in recent years his career has largely involved writing and producing two successful film franchises involving cars: The French-produced Taxi series and the Jason Statham-starring Transporter trilogy. Though both proved colossally profitable (the Taxi series in France, especially) they also lacked the razor sharp edginess of Leon or even Nikita. (In fairness, the first and third Transporters are giddy lowbrow fun.)

Taken could well signal a return to form. The choice of Neeson to star as the badass (instead of just teaching Batman, Anakin Skywalker, et cetera how to beat people up) feels both overdue and yet  classic. It’s strange to think he hasn’t starred as a dramatic hero since 1998’s Les Miserables, and with Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood winding down their careers Neeson might grab the title of Senior Action Hero for himself. Of the supporting cast, Grace has always had more potential than Lost’s fickle creators ever knew what to do with, and Janssen is a competent, relaxed dramatic actress better in character parts (such as 1998’s Monument Avenue) than in bigger ensemble pieces (the X-Men trilogy). Ultimately, like February’s Clive Owen-Naomi Watts suspenser The International, Besson’s Taken seems ready to further establish the European suspense action thriller genre begun by the Bourne trilogy.

Taken opens in wide American release January 30.

- Michael Kabel

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