The Bourne Identity

The pleasure of director Doug Liman’s version of Robert Ludlum’s novel “The Bourne Identity” is not that it surprises us—because it doesn’t—but that it doesn’t surprise us in the least, and yet is still so darned entertaining. Anyone who has seen the preview, or read the novel, or seen the 1988 TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain (or, for that matter, has seen the similarly themed “The Long Kiss Goodnight” in 1996), will know, if not the exact plot twists, certainly the tone and context of the events. A half-drowned and twice shot man (Matt Damon) is pulled from the Mediterranean by the crew of a fishing boat. He awakens unable to remember who he is, and, as he embarks on his quest to find out, he discovers a whole range of talents he didn’t even realize he had. The audience knows long before Jason Bourne does that he can run, climb, shoot, fight, and speak foreign languages just like, well, a secret agent of the James Bond variety. We know that he will meet up with a fetching innocent (Marie, played by Franka Potente, of “Run, Lola, Run” fame) who will become his ally. We know that he will track down the truth, turn the tables on his enemies, and emerge victorious in the end.

It turns out that anticipating these events only adds to the giddy exhilaration we feel when we see them acted out on screen. Of course, anticipation alone would not be enough if the movie couldn’t deliver, but it does not let us down. Liman, whose previous films include the funny, character driven “Swingers” and the funny, frenetic “Go,” starts off a bit a shakily, but he quickly gets down to business and establishes a strong rhythm and a relentless pace that suits the material perfectly. Working from Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron’s solid script, Liman manages to wind up the tension in scene after scene. He gets us on the edge of our seats, even when we know with absolute certainty that mayhem is about to erupt. His timing is impeccable. (There is an excellent moment when Jason and Marie, after a heart stopping car chase through Paris, sit breathless in the car, not looking at each other or talking, as if they had just come to the end of the world’s worst date. Liman holds the moment just long enough; any longer and the tension would fade, any shorter and it would never develop.) For once, Damon’s youthful fecklessness serves him well.

He seems quite believable as a reluctant secret agent, a man who is constantly surprised (and quite possibly mortified) by his abilities. Yet he also projects a preternatural calm when danger strikes, as if he really were just switching into automatic mode. There are some terrific fight scenes, and while Jason takes a few licks, the movie doesn’t waste time by suggesting that he is ever really in danger of losing. “The Bourne Identity” posits Bourne as the ultimate operative, and he quickly and efficiently dispatches one world class assassin after another. But the movie makes it clear that the real struggle is not between Bourne and his foes, but between Bourne and his lethal, forgotten past. That theme, along with Bourne’s attempts to forge a human connection with Marie, makes what could have been a stock comic book character peculiarly human, and makes “The Bourne Identity” a tip-top spy thriller. (6/19/2002)