Fans of movie puzzles will enjoy ‘Unknown’

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 14, 2006

The spiffy set-up of “Unknown” has been touted as an imitation of “Memento,” but it’s closer to the stark opening of “Saw,” without the gore. Five guys wake up in a locked warehouse, all suffering from amnesia.

They know something bad has happened – there are guns and blood around, and two of the guys are bound. A couple of facts emerge as they cast about in the sealed building: for one thing, a tank of chemicals caused the amnesia.

The second is even more troubling. A newspaper article contains a story about a kidnapping a couple of days earlier. It stands to reason that two of the men in the warehouse are the kidnap victims. Which means the other three guys are probably kidnappers.

Since they can’t get out of the warehouse, they have to wait for the other kidnappers to show up. Meanwhile, we cut outside for scenes of the police, the chief kidnapper (Peter Stormare) and the wife (Bridget Moynihan, from “The Recruit”) of one of the kidnapped men.

The five guys are played by Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Joe Pantoliano and Jeremy Sisto. They basically play their usual character traits; Caviezel is soulful, Pantoliano is obnoxious, Pepper is intense. The B-movie tang of their personalities is part of what makes the film entertaining.

The initial premise, from screenwriter Matthew Waynee, is a dandy. And there’s some mileage to be had from these men circling each other, not knowing whether they might be good or bad – and not knowing whom to trust.

Alas, that only takes the film so far, and the stories outside the warehouse aren’t sufficiently interesting to buoy up the plot. So the film spins its wheels after a certain point.

For those willing to stick around for the big revelations, there are some satisfying turns toward the end. Even after you think everything’s been laid out, there’s a bit more. It’s cheesy, probably, and it doesn’t outdo “The Usual Suspects.” But it’s worth sticking around for if movie puzzles are your thing.

Jim Caviezel is one of the stars of “Unknown.”