Taken (2008)

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There's a famous exchange often attributed to Churchill, Shaw and others, that goes something like this:

He: Madam, would you sleep with me for five thousand pounds?
She: Well, I might...
He: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
She: Why, what sort of woman do you take me for!
He: Madam, we have already established that; now we are haggling over the price.

It's a useful construction for a thought experiment. Madam, if your daughter was seized from her Paris apartment and sold into prostitution, would you drive nails into the perpetrator's legs and electrify them? This man knows where she is, and if you don't find her within forty-eight hours you never will.

If you say "yes", you've established that torture is acceptable: you're just haggling over the price.

Taken takes the answer for granted: Bryan Mills (Lian Neeson) is a former field agent for a three-letter agency who takes it poorly when his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped.

It's no Sypmathy For Mr. Vengeance, tempering righteous anger with horror and futility -- it's just a dumb actioner. Believe it or not, this comes as something of a revelation. Neeson's performance as the estranged father attempting reconciliation gives the film an emotional centre flatly missing from a run-of-the-mill Segal/Norris/van Damme vehicle. The production values are top notch.

It's a thrilling ride, but ultimately it's one that doesn't seem quite healthy -- an escapist fantasy of torture and mass-murder.

- Sam - 2009-01-02 12:26:49