Disappointed

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2002)

The Bourne Identity starts out promisingly. Its premise, that a secret agent/assassin has amnesia and is being hunted by his former employers, is good if unoriginal. The setup to the movie promises a lot more than the actual film delivers. Despite some entertaining action sequences, the movie falls flat on its amnesiac head.
Matt Damon does decently well in his action hero role though he does smarmy and sarcastic a lot better than cool and calculating. Franka Potente is the only real acting bright spot in this film. Her character seems to have some depth and you get the sense that both her decision to stay with Bourne and her later decision to leave involved genuine inner conflict. In the one quasi-love scene, she provides all of the sexual spark in her seduction of Bourne, who midway through the brief scene seems finally to recall what sex is. Julia Stiles' agent should be fired for allowing her to play this bit part with no real connection to the story. She has one line that begs for some kind of dramatic flair. Instead of delivering her line in the manner of a scared communications agent about potentially to be killed by a rogue agent, she asks "It's Bourne, isn't it?" as though he were dropping by for tea.
The biggest problem with this film is not the acting. It's the script, which spares the viewer the inconvenience of tidying up its loose ends. It introduces the plot as good action-thrillers generally do, that is, with snippets of important characters in already developed situations and vague hints that their interrelationship will eventually explain the genesis of and real issues involved in those situations. But we are never really given any idea why the characters want the things that they want. We know that there is a deposed leader making trouble for the CIA; we hear of an expensive agent-training program; there are headaches. But we never get any well-developed sense of how they connect. The list of plot problems/holes is endless.
The ending is thoroughly disappointing. The explanation of Bourne's amnesia is almost silly and absurdly foreshadowed earlier in the film. The gun battle at the end is boring. I did learn something though. Apparently, if you get on top of a dead guy, you can plummet anywhere from seven to ten stories without incurring much in the way of injury. The end of this film is unique in the action-thriller genre precisely where you would want it to conform. There is no real Woo-style action grand finale.