Taken (2008)
***Stolen Summary***A former spy relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been forced into the slave trade.
imdb
***Rant***
The movie had a good build-up; it pulls you into the story and makes you root for Liam Neeson's character, Bryan Mills, as he tracks down the sex slave traders and kills them. It was nice to see Liam take a more action-hero role. I was a little dubious in the beginning, but the more I watched, the more I was curious to see what would happen next.
His daughter Kim and her mother are pretty annoying characters. The daughter shows a complete lack of sense while travelling with her friend in France. You will repeatedly be saying "WTF??!!! Seriously??!!!"
And the mother, played by Famke Janssen, shows more concern for indulging her daughter's whims despite the dangers that her ex-husband, Bryan warns against. But, we see that living in a fabulous mansion with a rich new husband has muddled her brain.
Keep these people in mind, folks, 'cause I'm about to open a can of whoop-ass on them.
I will not really discuss the beginning and middle, as these parts are very typical Luc Besson (big-time French director well-acquainted with action sequences) and were engaging to watch. The ending, however, SUCKS! I spent some time thinking about why it pissed me off:
After Bryan kills the "top bad guy," the scene quickly skips to the airport. How was Bryan able to get the French government off his back? That got edited out, I imagine. : )
Anyway, we're at the airport where the daughter runs all joyfully to her mother and her step-father gives Liam's character a manly "thank you" handshake/or half-hug, I can't remember which...but the manner of it was off.
The step-father's greeting/thanks to Bryan was given with a "thanks for lending me your hammer" casualness (not a "thanks for saving my step-daughter from a terrible sex-slavery ring).
The manner of it completely reduced the emotional and physical trauma that the daughter went through. Same with the mother! If that ever happened to one of my family members, I would have been loudly weeping, screaming, clutching at them...just gone crazy. There was waaay too much restraint.
Not only was there not enough emotion shown in that scene (from the daughter, the mother, and the step-father), but the APPROPRIATENESS of the emotions were off. The daughter is the best example here.
It is not very likely that a young teenage woman gets away from that trauma without any lingering emotional turmoil and inner scarring.
It is more likely that she will need some deep therapy from the whole experience, have possible personality changes/mood swings, night terrors, post-traumatic stress disorder...But no, she's reduced to the same fun-loving teen we saw in the beginning of the movie...and she's going to train to become a singer! And we see this in another tacked-on scene.
Did the mom, step-father, and daughter learn nothing from this experience? Is the mom and step-father now able to say "NO" to their daughter's every little whim? Well, now she's going to a popular singer's house to learn how to sing. A singer who's had a stalker/knife-wielding weirdo come after her earlier in the movie (and will probably have more do so in the future). And they're encouraging their daughter become a singer.
And Liam's character encourages her to do so too...taking her right to the door. From one scary world into another scary world. Perhaps there was an unintentional (or intentional, who knows) message there. "No matter how much you try to protect your family, bad things will still happen." That's a pretty sucky message. Let's go with "Learn to say no to your children. Be a parent first, a friend after, not vice versa. Don't spoil your children." And etc...
On the home stretch now...
The problem with the the airport scene is Hollywood-ized: "Everything and everyone's okay and we're all happy.
The problem with the scene at the singer's house is that it could have worked...but over time. It was unnecessary to tack it on right after the airport scene. It also reduces the trauma that had just happened. Maybe the singer's house" scene could've used a "A year later..." super-imposed over it.
What would have been a better ending?
Liam's character dies. The whole family visits the grave dressed all in black. The mother and step-father stand aside. The step-daughter walks forward, alone, and places a flower on the grave. Fade out. End scene.
Yes it's cliched and simple, but you cannot deny it's a much more appropriate ending than the one we saw. The actual movie ending "cooled" the film very quickly. The ending needed a better transition from the cruel, scary, torturous, scenes we had just seen.
***Judgement***
Worth watching. Contains one laugh.
1 comment:
I agree with you that the fairytale ending is out of place when most of the movie was drenched in the scary reality of fear. Although, it is a bit thick with fear in this movie. Liam was the "overprotective" dad. This time events played out in a way that he had has an excuse to say "I told you so." Amanda is 19-years-old and is supposed to be the responsible one- but she's flirting with every French boy who approaches her with a laissez-faire attitude (which I guess is appropriate since it's in France) and, if asked, I'm pretty sure she would give away her credit card number. So you have this weird mix of uber-vigilance with naivete and that gives my suspension of disbelief a workout.
Post a Comment