Well-written novel becomes fodder for mindless action fare

Rating: 3/10 (30 June 2002)

Plot? Characters? Conflict? Theme? These are all qualities possessed by both the Robert Ludlum novel, and the 1988 made-for-TV production of "The Bourne Identity", but entirely lacking in this incarnation. The director and writer extract a very promising premise from the original, but ignore every detail of execution that made it into a well-crafted story.
A well-made thriller is a thrill for the mind. The conflicts, the situations and motivations of characters are complex, and require mental effort to follow. And the effort pays off, because when we pay attention and expend the effort, we're rewarded with understanding, and consequently entertained. This film shows absolute contempt for the mind of the audience. The situations and character perspectives are an embarrassing mix of the obvious and the arbitrary. Typically modern, sloppy script. As one example out of hundreds, in the original, Bourne catches on quickly to his likely identity as a killer, but Marie, who's had a chance to observe him and get a sense of his character tries to convince him he's not, or at least not a criminal. This gives her an actual purpose in the furtherance of the story, not to mention providing some real tension and meaningful dialogue in the early part of the story. This whole aspect is missing in this version. The film-makers' perspective is clearly, "Why bother with all that intellectual nonsense? Just make her attracted to him, but a little scared, and let them trade a couple of one-liners, and everyone will understand."
Doug Liman's camera work shows similar contempt for our higher faculties. He is apparently from the if-the-camera-stays-in-one-place-for-more-than-a-thousandth-of-a-second-the- audience-will-get-up-and-leave school. And in all the action sequences, the shots are so tight as to prevent any actual visual perspective of the situation. I'm up in the air as to whether this is done purely for the desired style, or whether it's just laziness in not wanting to go to the trouble of carefully organizing all the on-screen elements in such a way that a long shot will look right.
Modern films made along these lines are always disappointing, but when they take a work that has so many great attributes, and deliberately leave most of them behind just to make a typical, plotless action movie, it is especially infuriating.