Liam Neeson doesn’t appear to be coping with old age particularly well. In his recent film Taken he lost his daughter in Paris, and in his latest he loses his memory in Berlin. Perhaps he should stay at home for a while and put his feet up for a bit?

Neeson Stars as Dr Martin Harris, who arrives in Berlin to attend a prestigious conference with his wife Elizabeth (Mad Men’s January Jones). Just as they’re about to check into their hotel, he realises that one of his bags is missing, so he heads off in a taxi back to the airport.

En route, his taxi gets involved in a nasty accident, and it’s only the quick-wittedness of his driver Gina (Diane Kruger) that he survives at all - just.

Four days later, he wakes up from a coma. Despite some patchiness to his memory, everything is in working order. Going against his doctor’s wishes, he leaves hospital to return to his wife, who is probably worried sick about him, having not seen him since the day they arrived.

But when he returns to their hotel, he discovers his wife is with another man. This goes way beyond a marital problem however, as his wife claims the man by her side is actually her husband. Thrown into confusion, Martin begins to question who he is; is it really possible that he isn’t Dr Martin Harris after all? On top of all this, it appears that someone else also wants him dead, regardless of whom he may or may not be. For Martin, this may well be the ultimate identity crisis.

I warned you that taking a trip with me to Europe my not be a good idea.

Liam Neeson’s career of late has become quite the curiosity. Having spent most of it concentrating on meaty acting roles, now that he’s fast approaching sixty, he’s suddenly become an action hero. He certainly has the stature to carry it off, but the scripts – particularly here – seem to let the side down.

Suffering from amnesia is a common complaint amongst cinematic protagonists; one of the finest examples in recent years is Christopher Nolan’s Memento. This isn’t quite in the same league as that. In fact it’s fair to say that Nolan’s effort is definitely top of the Premiership material, whereas this is Sunday amateur league stuff in comparison.

Simply put, the story makes no sense. Everything you would do if you were put into such an extraordinary position, Neeson’s Martin does the opposite. It’s kind of made worse by the fact that director Jaume Collet-Serra (who last directed the equally laughable Orphan), does a fairly good job of building the tension, only to disappoint with an ending that explodes with the impact of a damp fart.

The whole thing feels like the premise of having Neeson in Berlin forgetting his memory came first, and a patchy script was awkwardly knitted together around it. Even the other characters don’t sit particularly well within the story; it’s as if they’ve just been cooked up for a improve sketch on Whose Line is it Anyway?. Not only is Jones woefully underused, Kruger’s cab-driving Gina appears to far too easily accept the peculiar goings-on around her.

Unknown is one of those films that starts off on a good foot, but certainly by the halfway mark, loses direction pretty much every which way.

It’s understandable that Neeson would embrace this new-found action fame – after all it comes with a new, younger audience willing to pay good money to see him throw his weight around – but he’s really a better actor than that. But if he still dead set on playing the tough guy, he should probably try jumping on the cool bandwagon of someone like Tarantino; it certainly worked out ok for John Travolta.

In the meantime, we can only hope that he loses his passport, as opposed to his memory, and avoids Europe at all costs for the time being, making it a safer world for all concerned.