Erased (2013)

2 Stars (out of 4)

Rubbed Out

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

German-born Philipp Stolzl makes his English-language debut with the utterly routine thriller Erased (formerly known as The Expatriate), which lazily borrows plot twists and ideas from many other recent thrillers, especially those starring Liam Neeson.

Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) lives in Brussels with his estranged teen daughter, Amy (Liana Liberato), and works as a security expert. After making a curious discovery at work, he wakes up to find that his entire identity has been erased. His office is gone, his bank account is gone, his Blackberry has been deleted, etc. He deduces that he and Amy were supposed to have been killed, but survived due to an accident. Now as he races around the city to find out what happened, Amy starts to notice that there's more to her father than meets the eye; he seems to have been trained for this kind of thing. Events come to a head when the bad guys kidnap Amy, forcing Ben into a final, explosive showdown.

Though Stolzl's work may be competent, his fight and chase sequences are numbingly familiar and barely even quicken the pulse. The characters are perhaps even worse. Aaron Eckhart's Ben becomes a horribly unsympathetic dad, completely lacking in parenting instincts. He has somehow forgotten his daughter's deadly peanut allergy, and even when wounded in a fight, he dresses his own wounds first before tending to hers. The movie attempts to make Liana Liberato into a tough teen, but the attempt feels tired. And poor Olga Kurylenko has nothing to do but speak tensely into telephones, and stalk around in various hallways. Blessed with a perfect title, Erased will quickly disappear from the memory.