I'm taken by TAKEN

Sometimes, I get into this mood where I just want to go against the tide. This mood has me wanting to watch horror films on Christmas Eve, or the silliest high school movies during Easter. This month of love and lace and all things red and mushy, I’m into action flicks. The higher the body count, the better. It’s not that I particularly enjoy watching evil people or their victims die. It’s more like when I’m in whatever form of miserable—and these days, it’s almost negligible; I’m just letting the Valentine hype get to me—it’s good to see that other people have way, way worse problems than I do. In one word: catharsis.

Taken, starring Liam Neeson, is exactly the kind of film I’ve been looking for.

I’d say this film was a dark horse in the action category. Neeson, who’s been cast as Qui-Gon Jinn, (the voice of) Aslan, and Henri Ducard, strikes you as someone who’s been there and has already made his way out. Neeson’s more like the kind of guy action stars ask advice from, so I wasn’t quite sure he could be a credible action hero. To say that he surprised most of us is an understatement.

Neeson portrays retired CIA operative Brian Mills who’s trying to form a relationship with his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). His ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) has remarried, and she’s overprotective in some ways and a little too liberal in others. She makes sure to protect Kim from her father’s world view, but thinks nothing of letting her lie to him about exploring museums in Paris and following U2 all over Europe.

Brian isn’t comfortable about the idea first, but when Kim throws a tantrum, he relents—with some pretty sound rules, that, of course, Kim fails to obey to the letter. Kim’s reckless girl friend gets them kidnapped into a sex ring that has recently started targeting tourists. Kim witnesses her friend’s kidnapping and manages to sneak in a phone call to her father. It is at this point that the film starts to be totally arresting.

Devoid of any bells and whistles one would expect from a film in which the idea of the CIA figures prominently, Taken is powered by character and old school, realistic action. Neeson, who is in his mid-fifties, manages to carry himself well, so much so that when he slaughters an entire yacht of bad guys, it’s actually convincing.

How he manages to find Kim so fast by his lonesome is a little bit far-fetched, but his fight versus the kidnap-prostitution ring gives Hollywood-saturated viewers a refreshing, albeit darker, take of Paris. There are no pretty gardens here, and no Eiffel Tower swathed in twinkling lights. We get just to experience the dark underbelly of Paris that most tourists fortunately never get to experience, much less write home about. Incidentally, this film was written, directed and produced by the French. For deconstructing overly-romanticized Paris alone, I give additional props to it!

Taken doesn’t pretend to be an action blockbuster—and you will know this by its car chases—but it connected with many viewers because it still delivers in pretty much the same way some blockbusters do: Angry father tearing down a country to find his beloved daughter; bad guys treating young, innocent girls as mere pieces of meat; a handful of pretty boys and girls; and a touch of drugs, sex and, okay, rock and roll make a perfect recipe for action.

It was good to see Jannsen again (we last saw her on the big screen as Jean Grey/Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand), and likewise for Grace (who had her big break in Lost). Of course, Neeson, solid as ever, is undoubtedly the icing on the cake. He’s equally convincing as a broken family man, as he is a former CIA operative with some serious skills. 

 One major difference Taken has over other films in the genre is that it doesn’t resort to pre-kill wisecracks that can get to be annoying. When Mills says he’d kill, he’d kill. No two ways about it.

I’d say it moved like a systematic, unapologetic execution of bad guys and unnecessary fluff. Just perfect for the mood I’m in.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

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