The Bourne Identity - Matt Damon Won't Be Pigeon-Holed

I never really thought of Matt Damon as the action movie hero type. He sort of comes off in my eyes more as the good-natured boy next door; a sort of Ritchie Cunningham without The Fonz. However, his series of films as Jason Bourne has caused me to think again about Matt Damon the actor, and speaks well of his ability to be convincing in roles rather than just choosing roles that suit the perception the movie-going public has of him.

A fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea finds a man (Damon) floating in the water on a dark and stormy night. The ship's surgeon cuts away the neoprene suit from his body to find it riddled with bullets. While he is attempting to extract all the bullets from the man's body, he awakens and tells the surgeon he doesn't know his own name.

At CIA headquarters in Virginia, Conklin (portrayed by Chris Cooper) is hearing news that a mission has failed.

Once the man from the Sea has recovered sufficiently from his ordeal, he begins showing abilities to do many things and is driven to build up his physical strength. Yet, while he can remember how to read, tie knots, and speak various languages, he cannot remember who he is. The Doctor gives him some money and a laser pointer that was found embedded in hip. This pointer displays an account number at a bank in Switzerland, so the man sets off in that direction.

At the bank, he goes through a series of steps to gain access to the account, all of which seem to confirm that someone knows who he is. Once he has access to the safe deposit box attached to the account, he learns his name is Jason Bourne. He has an American passport and many credit cards. The passport shows an address in Paris as his residence. Upon further inspection, he finds multiple passports and credit cards for multiple identities. Just who is he really?

Everything seems to be getting to him - he is suspicious of every siren he hears, everyone who crosses his path, every glance in his direction. After almost getting taken into custody at the American embassy, he links up with Marie (portrayed by Franka Potente), an apparent free-spirit wandering through Europe and offers her $10,000 to drive him to Paris.

Almost as soon as he arrives at the address on his passport, an attempt is made on his life. Jason learns he has other skills in the martial arts and self-defense. He also learns that someone with the name on one of the other passports was killed two weeks before at a hotel in Paris.

The action in the The Bourne Identity is really good. Instead of major gun battles that seem to go on and on for no other reason than it can, the action here has meaning. The time spent setting up what is happening gives the action meaning. I could believe that Jason was fighting for his survival, while at the same time trying to unravel the mystery of who he is and how he ended up floating in the Mediterranean.

The way the story unfolds is nice. Director Doug Liman seemed to know how to give the audience enough to keep the film from being confusing, while at the same time keeping enough secrets that it was only near the end that may points throughout the film made sense. Even then, it was when I watched it subsequent times that I saw how everything fit together.

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne, and after seeing how he has transformed himself from the roles I was used to seeing him in, has become one of my favorite actors. Especially near the end of the film, just as I thought I pretty much figured out who he was and how he managed to get there, he showed a human side in a flashback sequence that I wasn’t expecting. Other actors can’t always be convincing in both extremes of a character, but Damon pulls it off nicely.

There is nice chemistry between Damon and Potente. There’s no instant attraction between the two of them, but the chemistry grows as the two spend time on the run together. Potente holds her own opposite Damon, and the story does build up enough questions and suspicions about her character without getting too cryptic and making it seem less plausible.

That’s not to say there aren’t moments where you have to pretty much suspend disbelief, but it’s a movie. One particular scene is when Jason tries to disguise Marie by cutting her hair. It looks like he’s hacking the hell out of her hair, yet the next day she looks quite good. Remorseless killing ability and good with a pair of scissors? I don’t think so.


The Bourne Identity is based on a very successful novel by Robert Ludlam. It was also done once as a made-for-television movie back in the 1980’s. It does ring a bell, but I can‘t say for sure that I ever saw it. If I did, it didn’t grip me enough to want to get my hands on the book and read it. This version does. It’s a high-paced action flick that is well acted with some terrific scenery all over Europe. I thoroughly enjoyed it.


BONUS MATERIAL:

• Alternate Opening and Alternate Ending
• The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlam
• Access Granted: An Interview with Screenwriter Tony Gilroy
• From Identity to Supremacy: Jason and Marie
• The Bourne Diagnosis
• CLoak and Dagger: Covert Ops
• The Speed of Sound
• Inside a Fight Sequence
• Moby Extreme Ways Music Video
• Feature Commentary with Director Doug Liman


Other Reviews in this series:

The Bourne Supremacy ~ The Bourne Ultimatum


© 2007 Patti Aliventi