When a man that looks like Joe Average manages to seduce beautiful blonde , things are usually not as they seem. Protagonist of Persons Unknown, 1996 thriller directed by George Hickenlooper, is one of those people who didn't pay attention to this prosaic fact of life. Jim Holland (played by Joe Mantegna) is an ex-policeman who now works as security expert. After passionate one-night stand with beautiful Amanda (played by Kelly Lynch) he notices that the files containing information about some of his clients' security codes have been looked upon. He immediately decides to investigate this matter and turns into one-man surveillance team. Following Amanda, he discovers that she plans to steal money from Columbian drug dealers. Along the way, Jim also finds that he is less intrigued by the Amanda or the heist and more by Amanda's beautiful and wheelchair-bound sister Molly (played by Naomi Watts).
George Hickenlooper, just like in his 1993 film The Killing Box, shows that he likes scripts that put bizarre twists into conventional genre plots. In this case, script by Craig Smith provides unusual romance between world-weary former policeman and crippled woman. Both roles are played very well and Naomi Watts in this early part of her career shows that she can handle even the most complex and unusual roles. However, this romance seems to be the only original element of the script. In everything else, Persons Uknown is drowned in cliches - crazed killers, drug money and big "surprise" when protagonist's best friend, who just happens to be played by of J.T. Walsh, has some sinister motives of his own. Hickenlooper's direction also leaves something to be desired, mostly because of too much light in the film that otherwise belong to noir. Although the relative obscurity of this film is not completely justified, Persons Unknown leaves unpleasant impression of being unfinished.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on April 29th 2003)
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