Neeson fills tough guy role easily in ‘Taken’

Published 7:13 am Friday, January 30, 2009

Liam Neeson is built for handing out whuppings.

The 6-foot-4-inch actor has the bulk and the boxer’s hands (he was a Northern Ireland champ in his youth), and his mashed face looks like it can absorb a few punches.

And yet Neeson hasn’t gone the action-hero route before. He’s appeared in his share of blockbusters, but not the kind of bruised-knuckle vehicles that you’d expect to see headlined by Jason Statham or Vin Diesel. Maybe he comes across as too intelligent or sensitive for that.

Well, don’t let the sensitive part fool you. Here’s Neeson in “Taken,” and a thorough butt-kicking is dished out.

The plot comes from the assembly line of writer-producer Luc Besson (he of the “Transporter” series), and it’s just as grabby as most of Besson’s ideas. Neeson is a former spy — or something, it’s not quite spelled out — whose teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while on vacation in Paris.

He’s got about 72 hours to find her before she’s packed off to the world of drugs and prostitution. Needless to say, Neeson does whatever is necessary to find the daughter.

No, he doesn’t speak French. But there’s something about shooting someone in the arm during an interrogation (“It’s just a flesh wound,” Neeson soothes the victim) that needs no translation.

“Taken” is directed at a brisk clip by Pierre Morel, who also guided one of Luc Besson’s better recent efforts, “District B13.”

Once we get past the awkward early reels, where Neeson’s paranoid attention to his daughter actually looks a little creepy, the movie works as a straight-on action flick.

Neeson’s approach to extracting information is out of the “24” rulebook, which mostly means there are no rules. The movie’s retro approach might have been more fitting for, say, 2004, when xenophobic attitudes crested in popularity.

“Taken” doesn’t have any particular attitude toward, say, thrashing a suspect to get information, except for Neeson muttering, “We used to outsource this sort of thing.”

And since the issue is entirely personal, his single-minded rampage comes across as understandable.

You can see why Liam Neeson was cast: He not only looks as though he can handle himself in a fight, he also seems smart enough to have the analytical skills to anticipate the villains’ next moves.

A variety of Euro-baddies fill out the cast, with Famke Janssen as Neeson’s ex-wife. Which made me wonder how the genetic spawn of those two towering actors could possibly need anybody’s help.

But try not to think about that during the film — thinking is not the goal here.

Trailer for ‘Taken’