How Taken Took Hold of Me

When I went to see Taken, the action film starring Liam Neeson, I thought it would be like a Steven Seagal film. More specifically, I thought it would be like Seagal's Under Siege 2. In both films, a man in early middle age has retired from his former life as an ultra-warrior. And in both films, the hero comes out of retirement and becomes the person he always was, and can't shake off – a man who fights, and climbs, and leaps off bridges, and so on.

Of course, I knew there would be differences – Seagal saves the world while trying to take his daughter on holiday; Neeson saves his daughter after she's been kidnapped while on holiday. Seagal's enemies are Middle Eastern, if I remember, whereas Neeson's are Albanian. Also, Neeson's main antagonist is cruel and ruthless, whereas Seagal's main antagonist, in a memorable performance by Eric Bogosian, is cruel and ruthless but also totally nuts, which makes him slightly less frightening.

But the thing I really wondered about was the fact that Neeson, usually a caring, ponderous presence, had become an action star. That's what made me go and see the film. I just wondered what he'd be like.

I think he's terrific. First of all, he has no trouble doing the normal action things – say, jumping off a boat, forward-rolling and then killing somebody. He's great at fight sequences. At one point, he talks his way into a den of Albanian organized criminals, pretending to be a bent cop, and kills all but one of them in a sequence that seems to last about a minute. And the thing is, I can hardly remember any individual kills – it's a flurry of slamming doors and headlocks. He appears to hit people brutally hard, and it's believable because he's so big.But there's more to this film than just action. At the start, something about it – something good, that is – seemed rather familiar. Neeson plays a former secret service warrior who has retired to be near his daughter. The daughter lives with Neeson's horrible, snobby ex, played by Famke Janssen, an ex-Bond girl who seems to be thriving as she approaches middle age (check her out as Ben Kingsley's constantly smoking wife in The Wackness.)

Anyway, Janssen has married a rich ponce, and Neeson is being squeezed out of his daughter's life, and it's heartbreaking. The way he stoops, his walk, and the way he uses his eyes is just superb. He's given up being a hero, and now he's being humiliated; the early scenes, which set this all up, are a bit manipulative. But it just about works. And then – bang! The daughter is kidnapped. Neeson takes control. Suddenly, he's a mad driver, a killing machine, and a detective. His ex-wife's rich ponce of a husband is nowhere. Ha!

Of course, what this reminds me of is the first Die Hard film, in which Bruce Willis, who has lost his wife to a rich ponce, ends up saving them. This engages a specific emotion in guys – it's the "I'm not rich, or sophisticated, but I'm better than rich ponces" syndrome. Every guy Bruce, or Liam, kills, is one for the real guys, and one in the eye for metrosexual internet billionaires, or whatever.

So I was right to think that Taken would be a bit like a Steven Seagal film. But it's better than that, I think. It's as good as a Bruce Willis film. And that's high praise indeed.