1. That Gives Me a Year to Find Her

The film opens with a video of a girl and her mom in the kitchen during the girl’s 5th-year birthday party. You are reminded of the opening scene to ‘Law Abiding Citizen’, showing Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) and his daughter, also five years old, enjoying quality time together. There are subtle differences, however. In Taken, the observable parent-child interaction happens between mother and child, whereas in Law Abiding Citizen, the parent we see is the father. Also, in Law Abiding Citizen, the scene plays out in real time, but here we are watching a video, suggesting that the person behind the camera may be the father, and this is a memory of some sort. Somebody is reminiscing about a moment that is dear to them, one that relates to this little girl. The girl blows out the single candle on her birthday cake, and immediately following this, we see Liam Neeson startle awake.

Liam Neeson stars in this action thriller as Bryan Mills, a father who has recently retired from his work as a Green Beret and CIA officer, looking to re-establish close relationships with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). His quest for reconnection is greatly expedited by the events that unfold as he finds himself on a rescue mission to retrieve his daughter, now aged 17, from traffickers of women.

Today is her 17^th birthday, and as Bryan awakens from sleep, he takes the framed photograph sitting on the sideboard just within reach and studies it briefly. The photo shows an adolescent Kim sitting on a horse. This both contrasts the image of Kim haunting him in his sleep and foreshadows a singular moment at her birthday event later that day, which confronts Bryan with an alternative reality to any which he might have expected from his memories of Kim as a little girl.

He gently replaces it before getting up to head out. Intriguingly, his dream was of her aged five. Kim, at that age, would seem to hold some significance for him in their relationship. One wonders.

Bryan drives to an electronics shop, buys a karaoke machine, brings it home, and wraps it up attentively with observable clean hands and nails. When he takes it to Kim at her birthday event, she receives it graciously. However, her stepdad rocks up with a horse, and she runs off excitedly, hugging him and declaring love for him before getting on the horse. Bryan is left processing the moment. Does he feel slightly inadequate because his daughter’s stepdad’s present is bigger than his? His own present was supposed to have meaning for her because it connected with her aspiration to be a singer. Her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen), had not been keen on the Karaoke machine, saying Kim had outgrown it. At the time, Kim reassured him, but then, in a split second, she ran off, exhibiting more excitement for her stepdad’s present than for his own. Did he feel redundant?

Back at his apartment, he deliberately places the latest birthday photo of Kim in his birthday album collection of her. Next, he flicks one page back to a photo of her at age 16 and studies it briefly. Then he flicks to a photo of her on her 5^th birthday. What happened to the birthday photos of her between the ages of 5 and 16? Anyway, he lingers on this photo and tenderly traces his index finger down the side of her face. While lost in reminiscence, he hears a knock at the door, and he goes to check. Three workmates from his days as a CIA agent have come around. Back inside, Bryan gushes to them about his daughter becoming 17. Sam (Leland Orser) is the most prominent of the three men. He asks Bryan about the state of his relationship with his ex-wife, Lenore. Casey (Jon Gries) then asks if Kim appreciates that he has given up his life to be closer to her. This is an odd question to ask a father about his attempts to rebuild his relationship with his daughter. Ordinarily, an offspring would be able to take their parents’ presence in their lives for granted, and they would be right to do so.

One wonders about the relationship that exists between the men. What exactly is the glue that keeps them together? They had formed a friendship working as colleagues for the CIA, but Bryan seems to be the only one who has created a life outside of their work. As he decides to prioritise developing a closer relationship with his daughter, none of the other men offers up stories about family past or present, nor do any of them discuss any intention for a future family life. It’s not only about what is absent. Casey’s question hints at an element of embitterment. Later in the film, Sam attempts to simultaneously recruit Byran and discourage him from focusing on his daughter. This happened after they completed a gig providing security for a famous pop singer, played by Holly Valance. As Sam apportioned their earnings, he pointed out that Bryan was going to lose his daughter, as she would be going off to college the following year.

The logic seemed to be that any time or effort that Bryan invests into a relationship with his daughter would be a waste, and would not get anything back since she’d be leaving him soon, so he might as well abandon his quest and invest his time and effort into going on gigs with them, where he would get more tangible returns on his investment. However, Bryan intrinsically understands that there is value in being present for his child, not measurable by tangible results alone. He had been absent from his family, and that resulted in a loss. He is ready to do the work in rectifying the situation.

Therefore, in response to his friend’s suggestion that he will lose his daughter next year when she goes off to college, he retorts:

“That gives me a year to find her.”