Top Box Office Movies - The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity (2002) Universal Pictures
1 hr. 58 mins.
Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente Julia Stiles & Chris Cooper.
Directed by: Doug Liman

The Bourne Identity

Rating:

E-MAIL GIANCARLO DE LISI

Photo: Universal Pictures

It is always interesting to see how Directors can cultivate themselves in different genres. For example, Director Frank Oz went from being the voice of Yoda in the Star Wars films, to directing comedies. Then last summer, he released a thriller entitled The Score. Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando and Edward Norton starred in this truly deplorable film that could have been a success, but was not. One of the reasons the film was not a success was due to the lack of ingenuity Director Frank Oz brought to the film. Therefore, anxiety was high before screening The Bourne Identity. Director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) is making his fourth attempt at engineering a film of this magnitude, while having to please a movie studio giant and has the responsibility of making Matt Damon an action icon. Can he do it?

Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who washes away in the Mediterranean Sea before being salvaged by fishermen. Once he recuperates from his mysterious wounds and commences to remember details about his past life, he aims at piecing his life back together. Suffering from severe memory loss, Bourne slowly attempts at a rediscovery. In this process, we discover that he has innate and incredible martial arts capabilities and is able at eluding even the worst of situations with his impressive arsenal of ideas and tactics. Director Liman has fun with the action sequences and makes no secret of trying to make the film as stylized as possible. Quick edits, pounding music and lots of collateral damage follows the path of Bourne.

During this period of rediscovery, we come to understand that are a few select powerful people in the world that do not want Bourne alive. This is how our protagonist escapes the many comical antagonists and allows for the little yet interesting action pieces to birth. One uneven aspect of the film is how comically visual these villains are. From ‘coming back from the dead moments’ to unsuccessful assassins who are suicidal, there are many moments which are incoherent and do not contribute to the film.

Director Doug Liman attacks this film with a certain visual zest in hopes of masquerading the film as a truly superb action thriller. It seems he enjoys using the swooping camera shot immensely in order to convey tension and anxiety, yet, when it becomes a repeated and formulaic process during every tense moment, it tends to lose its’ affect.

What this film does have working in its’ advantage is an action quotient that is quite tasty and leaves one wanting more action in the film. The only problem was, I was anxiously awaiting the film’s climax hoping the action would pass the time, but it did not.

The film suffers from its’ own cancer as it becomes bogged down in the politics of international bureaucracy resulting in a weak ending. The film really is an international spy thriller along the likes of the Bond films but this film seems less fabricated and more authentic. That being said, it does have its’ moments where the flaws embedded in the script transpire through various permutations within the film.

Furthermore, during Bourne’s rediscovery, he is aided by Run Lola Run’s Franka Potente. This young actress appeared in the great German film directed by Tom Twyker and one of her key lines was the word ‘Scheiser’. Meaning – ‘shit’. If one has watched both Lola and Bourne Identity, one can only assume due to contrast that Liman wanted to retain some international flavor within this international film and certainly made sure we knew the German actress within this film. Quite a tepid attempt at making the viewer out to be a fool, her lines were completely out of context and Liman could not bring about any chemistry between Damon and Potente.

As annotated in this piece, the film does have its’ flaws and is very uneven at times. But it is a solid first attempt for Liman who has shown that he has potential to grow out of his indie roots and while it is uneven, it is a decent attempt.

The tone of the film can best be illustrated by the film’s soundtrack as created by John Powell (Face-Off). The film opens with a quick pace as Bourne furiously attempts at discovering his past and during the action sequences while he escapes the ‘baddies’, Powell accompanies these sequences with a great score and even includes some techno music for the outlandish car chase sequence. Yet, the music of the film foreshadows the pacing of the film and just as the movie hits’ its’ high point towards the mid section, the rest of the film slowly winds down towards its’ anticlimactic climax all the while Powell’s score reflects the mediocre second to third act and its’ truly unsatisfying finish. It is not an understatement to exclaim that if ‘the Bourne Identity’ needs to be reborn if a sequel is to be made.

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Giancarlo De Lisi
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