The man who knew too much...except who he was...

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2020)

Now this is a movie that follows the 'spy thriller' guidelines to the letter.
Nothing is missing. A hero in the middle of a worldwide secret conspiracy? Check. Rivaling secret organizations? Check. Skillful martial arts fighting? Check. Improbable and yet heart-pounding car chases with a cool-looking chased vehicle? Check. Speaking of vehicles, a romantic one for the hero? Check too. Cold European locations? Check. And so forth.
If it's a genre that's been hard to reinvent since the 'James Bond' movies, it's still one capable to furnish a few little gems. "The Bourne Identity", directed by Doug Liman, obviously follows the "Bond" legacy (notice the hero's acronym) but it does so in a way that never fails to entertain even the least likely to be surprised fans. Maybe because it didn't try to surprise.
Indeed, instead of going to the 'prestige' road and try to pretend to be smarter than many James Bond film (which 'James Bond' new movies tend to do actually), Liman trusts his material and manages to make a decent and promising thriller, good enough to become the first installment of a successful series. And he lets the script, based on Robert Ludlum's novel, reveals its little tricks, starting with the two novelties in the lead characters.
Matt Damon, still looking young enough to pass as Will Hunting, is Jason Bourne, a young man looking for his true identity, and Franka Potente, the "Run, Lola" girl is Marie, the outsider who finds himself taken in that adventure more or less against her own will. There's a reason for her script in the story, but as far as the film's concerned, we know it's necessary for the hero to have someone to talk to, and Potente always finds the right tone. She's not excited, she's shocked and nauseous about violence but she's intrigued enough by Bourne to trust him and follow him.
I know it's tempting to say that the mystery is the reason why the film is capable to hook us, but Bourne's dissociative amnesia isn't exactly a riddle for the ages and there are enough hints about his secret (fighting skills, language fluency...) to figure out that he's not a coal miner. When at the opening, he's fished by Italian boatmen, riddled with bullets and without any memory, I figured it was because of a mental treatment (à la Ludovico) and he was probably a secret agent whose mind might have been brainwashed one bit too many, but the film comes up with a rather simpler explication for the amnesia, so simple that I actually liked it.
It reminded me of that moment where Jason gives a detailed but rather complicated plan to Marie in order to gain information about hotel customers and at the end, all she had to do was asking politely. This is a film that has enough self-awareness to never pretend to play it smarter than its audience and till the end, no spectacular twist comes up trying to wow us, nor any overly long climax. In fact, there's no big reveal, we suspect for a long time who Bourne was, the trick isn't to figure out who he is, but just enjoy the the cat-and-mouse chase with the CIA and a few gunmen.
On that level, the film isn't overcrowded but what is there is quality. Brian Cox is the CIA Deputy Agent (I guess he'll have a bigger role in the next films) Chris Cooper is Conklin, the man who wants to get a hand on Bourne after an apparent failure during a black operation named "Treadtstone" and their climactic confrontation is one of the film's greatest moments. Now, I have to give accolades to Clive Owen who, with less than ten minutes of screen-time and only a few lines, steals the show as the cold "Professor". Seriously, any actor with the right physique could play the emotionless killer but Owen has a brief exchange with Damon where he injects his own emotionality, and proves that after all, they're still humans with emotion and maybe they don't enjoy it that much. Maybe that's the key of the "Bourne" film, something I'm beginning to like, people don't enjoy what they do but they have to.
Bourne wants to identity until he's having second thoughts about it, but he must escape from his tormentors if he wants to start a new life. Marie doesn't want to follow him and jeopardize her life (or her relatives) but she doesn't feel too hot about leaving him either. Cox' character must answer for a failed job and Cooper's Conklin must get the responsible and punish him accordingly. all about jobs getting done and hierarchical strata. And while James Bond seems to enjoy what he does, Bourne is just going into a direction he's forced in and the real shift occurs when he understands he must be the one calling the cards. And even then, he never acts as if it's fun to have all these skills but he's got them and that's what matters.
And that might be what works in the film, it has great special effects, unlikely fighting moves, amusing and thrilling stunts, suspenseful confrontations, and they're all played with the right dose of seriousness and self-awareness, allowing to establish two-and-half dimensional characters for the next installments. In fact, what we get is a well-made thriller, so well I was wondering what would be the harder to believe, the falling from the stairs with enough time to shoot a villain between the eyes or that such a film wouldn't get a sequel