Taken

As a breakdown for those of you who have not seen the movie, Taken, is the story of a man who was divorced by his wife and whose job did not allow him to see much of his daughter. Now, he has quit his job and has moved closer to his family in a hopes that he and his daughter, Kim, might spend more time together. The director clearly shows the rockiness in their relationship when the father shows up at his daughter's birthday party (conveniently held in a mansion-size house that his ex-wife and her new husband live in). Everything is huge and well-organized, while his gift is thoughtful, but not as expensive. He quickly meets up with his daughter who opens the present in front of both him and his ex-wife Lenore. She loves it and gives him a hug, but quickly forgets and puts the present on the ground when her stepfathers brings out her latest present: a white horse. Even the juxtaposition in clothing showed just how out of place the father was in the new family's setting. As for when Kim asks to go to Europe, he refuses outright, thinking of her saftey first. Then, on a few conditions, he changes his mind and Kim is ecstatic. However, it turns out her plans were not to go visit museums and toursits sights, but rather follow U2 on their concert tour. He doesn't say anything to Kim, hoping that she will see the world and not end up like Lenore, pampered and taken care of. His attention to detail was clearly shown at the beginning of the movie when he wraps Kim's present, his fighting skills were seen a little bit later when he takes a job with his friends and saves a young singer from a knife attack. So, when Kim is kidnapped in France, his only motivation was to get his baby girl back. There was no thinking process, no creation of a plan, it was get to France and kill who took his daughter. His connections in France were numerous, but never went into real detail about how he knew them or why, all that mattered was that he did and he would use those connections to get to his daughter. The bad guys (to me) seemed a little one-dimenisional, but that was the point. This movie wasn't about the bad guys or what their history was, it was about a father and a daughter and the lengths he would go to get her back. From jumping off bridges, stealing cars, breaking laws and more, Taken, was a Daddy movie to the extreme.