The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity is a wonderful action suspense thriller on par with the best of the James Bond films. It stars Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, and German actress Franka Potente (of Run Lola Run) and is set mostly in France.

The film opens with Damon’s character floating in the Mediterranean Sea, and he is found my some fisherman. After pulling him on board, they find that he has two bullet holes in his back, and also a strange sort of device implanted just under his skin. After being cleaned, the device is actually a laser pointer that displays a bank account number when turned on. Damon stays on board for two weeks, regaining his strength and trying to remember his own identity. He speaks several different languages, but does not know which one is his own native tongue. His only hope is to go find out what that bank account number holds and discover his own identity.

The rest of the film details Damon’s cat and mouse tactics that he uses to get away from countless assassins who are out to kill him. He pay a girl, Franka Potente, to drive him to Paris, and she finds herself quickly in over her head. When it turns out that the police are looking for her too, she decides to stick with Damon and help him solve his own mystery.

The Bourne Identity has one of those complex story lines that are found in only the best of suspense thrillers. With a few name and location changes, this could easily have been a James Bond movie. As it moves along, you never really are sure who is good or bad, and that includes Damon’s character. The plot twists are as plentiful as the fistfights, and there is a car chase that is on par with The French Connection.

Matt Damon is one of the best actors around, and he proves that he can handle action as well. Franka Potente was great in Run Lola Run, and she may be able to help kick off an American movie career with this role. She has that kind of pretty tough girl thing going on, and it works well. All of the other roles are fairly minor compared to the two leads, but everyone meshes well with the story.

Doug Liman directs this movie with style and keeps the pace fast and furious. His previous films of Swingers and Go are both considered crowd pleasers, with Swingers being one of the better films of the late 1990’s. The script is nicely done and there are no stupid one-liners or bad puns, making this a very watchable film. The excellent soundtrack also fits well with the action, blending electronica with orchestral music.

One thing about this film that really impressed me was that the action scenes were not done Matrix-style. There were some slick moves, but it didn’t have the kind of timed fakeness that you would see in a martial arts films. In fact, the fight scenes are very much like something you’d see in an earlier Stallone or Swarzenegger movie. They are quite realistic and edited well.

All in all, The Bourne Identity is an excellent movie that will surely spawn a few sequels. It had a very respectable opening weekend and word of mouth is already spreading about how good it is.