The directororial debut of US Latino music and ad producer Simon Brand, Unknown is a thriller in the style of Memento where a group of hard men find themselves holed up in a locked warehouse. The problem: how did they get there? How come many of them are tied up? And how come they’re suffering a loss of memory? More to the point, who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy?

The stellar cast led by the dewy-eyed Jim Caviezel gradually decipher the fact that they’re all being held for ransom but who may be the kidnapped and are any of them actually the perpetrators? Of course, there will be twists along the way in a claustrophobic thriller like this and many questions. Hence the title.

Unknown is a dark, tense thriller which begins well, merely because you get drawn into the puzzle and try to make sense of it. Whether you’ll be able to second guess how it finishes is another matter, but all does get revealed by the end.

If anything, Unknown is a kind of conundrum that leaves you wanting director Brand to take it out of the confines of the disused warehouse and into the real world, but that of course would be too easy. You’ll come out most likely, having felt this is a great exercise in acting and having enjoyed the cool music (similar to that used in the film Crash).

Jim Caviezel just has that look that suggests he must be the good guy, Greg Kinnear is fresh from starring in Little Miss Sunshine, Barry Pepper has played many soldier roles, most notably in Saving Private Ryan, but also recently in Flags of our Fathers, and he has also starred opposite Tom Hanks in The Green Mile and with Edward Norton in Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour.

Joe Pantoliano starred in Memento and also in films like Risky Business and The Matrix, Peter Stormare starred most notably in Fargo, and Jeremy Sisto was last seen in Thirteen.

This is clearly a lads’ film where the only girl part is given to Bridget Moynahan and even that role is a slim one. It will satisfy cinemagoers who like to be challenged and to see a thriller that doesn’t reveal its cards too easily. Brand will go on to do better films – this isn’t a polished article but as a rough diamond of a thriller, it has an edge and thankfully although a tense exercise, it also doesn’t take itself too seriously.