One major flaw away from being a masterpiece of the genre

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2009)

If you liked THE BOURNE TRILOGY and the recent Bond film--not QUANTUM OF SOLACE, which sucks, but CASINO ROYALE, which rocks--then you will dig this movie. It promises thrills and chills and drive and action. It delivers.
It contains one serious flaw, however, which will annoy some. But considering that IMDb users gave it an 8/10 rating it is clear that most won't care about the flaw, won't notice it or will simply like the movie so much that they will rationalize the complications it creates away without acknowledging that no rationalization, however imaginative, can make them go away. The remainder of the film and particularly the ending as they stand simply won't support such a huge suspension of belief.
The problem goes to plausibility, logic. And it really bugs me. Usually, such a honker of a problem would spoil the whole film for me. Yet, I still like it. A lot. I give it a 7 out of 10 with the flaw, and an 8 out of 10 without it . . . that is to say, removing it would subtract nothing from the story, and that's what's really weird about it not being removed before the movie was released.
Removing the flaw and the sequences attached to it would have required shooting two or three other sequences in their place, but this wouldn't have injured the rest of the film at all, no other changes would have been required. Just a swap. The rest is fine.
Hence, the problem is just as glaringly obvious as its solution is simple.
How the screen writer and the director could miss it and still be capable of producing an otherwise brilliant and riveting action flick is mysterious. Even assuming that the screen writer and director are idiot savants or brilliant drug addicts, how did the film editor miss it? Oh, well. There it is. A really good action movie just the same.
The only thing that really makes any sense, as the rest of the film cannot be a brilliant accident, is that the filmmakers started out with one idea, realized it didn't add up in the editing room after the last take and after the players were released. That sometimes happens. So you throw up a few sets, recall the pertinent players and fix it. Budget? Other commitments? Who knows.
For those who haven't seen it, I won't divulge anymore about the film except to say that the problem involves the inclusion of a certain, utterly unnecessary character--the French internal security agent. Cut him out, and all of the complications stuffed inside his baggage disappear.
But check it out. It's well worth the aggravation. It's a great ride, a thrilling popcorn flick with a vengeance.