The Bourne Identity (Matt Damon, Franka Potente) 1/2
It should come as no surprise that our hero's initials in The Bourne Identity are J.B.; these are, after all, James Bond's initials too. With copious chase scenes, international intrigue, undercover border-hopping and Swiss bank accounts, one might think the character of Jason Bourne would be played by Pierce Brosnan.
This, of course, is not the case, and fortunately a number of the 007 similarities end there. However, in playing the multiple-aliased title role, it is clear that Matt Damon has become a bit of a Bourne-like chameleon himself in recent years. His acting credentials in Rounders, the Rainmaker, Saving Private Ryan and the Talented Mr. Ripley are providing him with quite a varied canon of work. He seems able to pull off a lot of different everyman characters while maintaining a certain wit and charm.
Damon plays a man who is discovered afloat in Mediterranean waters by a fishing boat. He is found with two bullet holes in his back and a third one surgically inserted into his hip (it refracts some key information via laser beam -- kinda cool). Anyway, the guy has amnesia, but while he can't remember his name or his occupation, he has retained superior fighting skills, methodical powers of observation, and seems to have amassed a heck of a lot of money. This is my kind of amnesia. While ducking into the U.S. Embassy building in Switzerland, he bumps into Marie (Franka Potente) and convinces her to drive him to Paris for $10,000. We start to wonder if perhaps Bourne has lost more than just his memory.
There are a few misfires, but none that get in the way of the fun. For example, I cringed at a scene when Chris Cooper, as a flustered CIA operative, started dispatching the troops to find Bourne. It was as if he were summoning the ghost of Tommy Lee Jones's Detective Gerard from the Fugitive and channelling his exact speech (the one where he tells his officers to check every outhouse and henhouse and doghouse until they find Richard Kimble). The conclusion didn't really explain the circumstances behind Bourne being adrift at sea. And, as lovely as Julia Stiles is, how many 19-year old girls do the kind of work she does for the CIA? It is because of this miscasting that her real life age betrays her otherwise fine performance.
Doug Liman is the director here. He made the wonderful Swingers in 1996 and the splashy Go in 1999. Although the kneejerk reaction is that Liman would be out of his element with a spy thriller, he shows great poise and promise by keeping things moving at a brisk pace. The Bourne Identity has a lot of familiar parts to it, but the cumulative result still rivals the action and fun one could derive out of any random James Bond installment. And then some.
