The Bourne Identity Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)June 15th, 2002
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"I guess you're not home...
Starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Julia Stiles. Directed by Doug Liman. Rated PG-13.
Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity is an impeccable Hollywood thriller, plausible from start to finish, technically incomparable, emotionally gripping. Even when it fails, and that doesn't happen often, it fails well, interestingly, with heart. I don't know whether it's the integrity of the original material (I haven't read the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum), the talent of the director, for whom this is a change of pace after Swingers and the faux-Tarantino romp Go, the obvious interest of the actors involved or a combination of the three, but this is one of the most purely entertaining films in some time.
It opens on a boat, where a group of fishermen recover the body of a man, barely alive, floating in the middle of the sea with two bullets embedded in his back. He wakes up and reacts violently, in his confusion attacking the poor guy who just picked hunks of metal out of his body. He realizes that though he remembers everything he has learned -- including a disconcerting amount of martial arts and nearly every language; he also has a photographic memory and some other skills the typical civilian doesn't possess -- he cannot remember anything that happened to him prior to being found.
One thing he does have is a metal implant containing an account number of a bank in Zurich, Switzerland. There, he finds an obscene amount of money in a dozen different currencies, a collection of foreign passports all having his picture but each with a different name (his "real" name seems to be Jason Bourne: or is it John Michael Kane?), assorted paraphernelia and a gun. He finds that he has a residence in Paris, and also that there are men with guns looking for him (by now, we know that the hunters are CIA operatives trying to bring in a rogue agent). He enlists drifter Marie (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris for a fee of $20,000.
As he hops nervously around Central Europe, visiting some rather picturesque locales, the mystery of Jason Bourne slowly begins to unravel. We are also introduced to Nikki (Julia Stiles), a Parisian CIA informant seemingly tuned to every police frequency simultaneously and often able to inform the folks at home of either Jason or Marie's current location. Even with Jason's prowess, everywhere they go, they leave a trail.
Let me begin with the negative: The Bourne Identity's biggest misstep is its extensive use of dramatic irony. Because we're one step ahead of Jason Bourne, it makes it harder to empathize with his journey. The movie introduces the CIA element so casually and so early that I sometimes forgot that Bourne himself knows nothing about it; the thriller element would have been more effective had we been allowed to piece together the mystery of Jason Bourne at the same pace as -- maybe slower than -- Bourne himself.
I quibble. The film is a superb, skillful Hollywood specimen. The action is staged with a Cameron-esque flair for timing and suspense, and the martial arts scenes are surprisingly solid given that Matt Damon is neither Crouching Tiger nor Hidden Dragon. The film's centerpiece, an extended car and motorcycle chase through the streets of (I think) Paris, is a virtuoso showcase of efficient directorial know-how, and it may be the first time I actually cared about the outcome of a chase since Harold and Maude.
Matt Damon is a curious casting choice, akin to picking Tobey Maguire to play Spider-Man. He has never played a lead action hero, and indeed, it's hard to imagine the mild-mannered star of The Rainmaker and The Legend of Bagger Vance playing a trained killing machine. Much like the Maguire move, however, casting Damon pays off in spades: the actor has a gift for combining coldness and expressiveness; he earns your sympathy even as he crosses the boundaries of impassiveness.
A week after seeing Bad Company, an almost impossibly generic buddy-CIA-agent, diffuse-the-bomb "thriller," it becomes easier to appreciate the subtly unconventional joys of a film like The Bourne Identity. It hardly breaks new ground, but Liman isn't satisfied with the rote super-spy cliches of his Hollywood compatriots. Therein lies the difference between an entertainer and a hack.
Grade: B+
Up Next: Common Wealth
©2002 Eugene Novikov
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