The Bourne Identity -- PG-13
Starring: Matt Damon, Franke Potente
Directed by: Doug Liman
Showing: Showplace East 11
One question remains: "Can Matt Damon be a dark, violent James Bond?" Sadly, the movie, "Bourne Identity," had difficulty answering that question. Although director Doug Liman does an excellent job of tearing through this summer's action ride, ultimately the movie falls short of realizing its true potential. The action could hardly make up for the shallowness of character and high school acting.
Matt Damon plays the mysterious hero Jason Bourne, but he just doesn't cut it as a spy. The mystery unfolds when Bourne is discovered floating in the Mediterranean Sea with bullet holes in his back. Upon awakening, he can't remember who he is. Yet he has not lost his well-honed survival instincts. He can disarm and disable cops with a flick of the wrist, and with little conscious effort he can identify every possible threat in a diner while mentally recording the license plate numbers of the cars outside.
A capsule found sewn into Bourne's hip beams out the numbers of a secret Zurich bank account. There, in a safety-deposit box, Bourne discovers tons of cash, multiple passports with various names (and his face of course) and a gun. Damon bribes his lovely and completely simple sidekick Marie, played by Franke Potente, to help him escape the ensuing mayhem. After numerous close calls and a one-night quickie, she develops a twisted half-realized relationship with Bourne, which leads to a semi-romantic love ending.
Liman makes brilliant use of dramatic pause before drilling the audience with full-blown action sequences, and his "Ronin"-like car chase is superb. The evil bureaucrats are baffled by the resurfacing of this talented and dangerous agent, so they surmise that killing him would be better than reassigning him. Several super-killers are sent out after him, all lacking the same depth of character as Bourne. At the traveling op-center is the completely wasted role given to Julia Stiles (who is adept at answering the phone and looking startled, but little else).
There is no question Damon can handle a tough, ruthless character as was evident in his villainous role in "The Talented Mr. Ripley." But Damon lacks beefy action hero qualities, and the end result is a teenage approach to being a killer and a spy. The action is enjoyable. The plot is decent and at times amusing, but the one-dimensional characters really hurt this summer thriller. Let's hope Damon beefs up for the next one.
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