Complete Unknown Review
By David Kempler
Incomplete Unknown
All of the necessary pieces are in place. We have two fine actors, Michael Shannon and Rachel Weisz, an accomplished director in Joshua Marston ("Maria Full of Grace"), and a story with obvious raw potential. Yet somehow, "Complete Unknown" never quite takes off as I would have anticipated and the ending lands with a dull thud. Yes, there are fine moments, but they never turn into anything more than that.
At the film's beginning, Marston shows us Alice (Weisz) in a montage as a successful woman in many different and unrelated fields. While it means nothing to us then, it does get explained in full, later. Tom (Shannon) works on agriculture policy emails for the government, a profession I have never heard of, before, although I presume it really exists. He doesn't appear to be particularly in love with his job, but he isn't down about it, either, an attitude similar to what most of us experience, I suppose.
His co-worker, Clyde (Michael Chernus), meets Alice, a very pretty lady that he is immediately taken with in a big way. He's a little bit clumsy with her, presumably because he's not much of a ladies man and because she is a bit out of his league, at least based solely on her good looks. However, it's not a chance meeting. Alice has an agenda.
Tom has a problem that is causing tension at home. His wife Rehema (Azita Ghanizada) has a chance at a good job across the country and Tom would prefer to remain in New York City. That discussion will have to be put on hold because it's Tom's birthday and a small party is being held at this home.
The party is going smoothly enough when Clyde shows up with Alice. After a while, Tom can't keep his eyes off Alice, not for the usually expected reason of his being attracted to her. She looks familiar to him, but he has trouble figuring out where he knows her from and it's bothering him. Suddenly it hits him that she reminds him of an ex-girlfriend of his from college, but her name was Jenny. Eventually his confusion is resolved when it turns out that Alice is or was Jenny. She has changed her name and it's no accident that she met Clyde. It was part of her plan to reunite with Tom.
The rest of "Complete Unknown" plays out with the two of them wandering away from the party, and talking over their old relationship. None of it is terribly interesting except for a chance meeting with a slightly off-kilter couple, played by Danny Glover and Kathy Bates, but that serves more as a nice performance piece that doesn't add anything to the story. Unfortunately, that might be the best part of the entire film. The rest of "Complete Unknown" is woefully incomplete.
