Not too shabby...

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2002)

Not too long ago, when reviewing The Sum of All Fears, I wrote of what we all experience at one time or another when seeing a film based on a book we've read. As I was leaving the house, and driving across the river and entering the theater to see The Bourne Identity, I was having that quandary once again. I'd read the Robert Ludlum novel almost fifteen years ago, and I recently re-read it, just to make things even more difficult for myself (I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment). I'd liked the story. I'd even kinda-sorta liked the Richard Chamberlain-Jaclyn Smith TV movie version in 1988. The novel was a little melodramatic in parts, but on the whole, it was an intelligent, involving action story that incorporated techno-gadget spy-toys of the day (late 1970s) in a realistic fashion. Moving that story forward twenty years while staying true to the source material would be a chal-lenge.
I'll come back to that point shortly, but I also wanted to touch on some of the Develop-mental Hell this film went through in order to make it to the screen, and how all of that affected the finished product. Those who follow the movie `business' know that this film was shot in late 2000 and early 2001, and meant to be released in the fall of 2001, but 9/11 pushed that back. Then, after test audience results came back unfavorably, cast and crew were recalled to European locations to shoot a new ending in January of 2002, and the release date was pushed back even further. It is something of a truism that when such things happen, the movie is almost beyond saving and will probably stink.
Oh, the story. Man is pulled from the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets, a microchip surgically implanted in his hip, and no memory of anything that happened before he was fished from the sea. The microchip leads him to a bank in Zurich, where the first clues to his identity are revealed, and the more the man learns, the less he likes what it appears he is. Picking up an unwitting accomplice in Zurich, in the form of a young woman who gives the man a ride to Paris, he ends up implicating her in whatever troubles his past self may have created, and relying on her to aid him.
All that being said, The Bourne Identity, did the one thing that a film can do to avoid the novel/screenplay conflict: it threw out the book, or at least most of it. And considering the Hell that director Doug Liman and Universal Studios put each other through, the finished product is a well-made, entertaining and fairly believable action thriller. Director Liman is known for his first two features, independently produced Swingers and Go, neither or which, unfortunately, I have seen. This picture was his major-studio debut, and his reputation as a visually and structurally innovative filmmaker gave me hopes of something stylish and gritty, maybe like Michael Mann's work. My guess turned out to be correct.
The European locations -- Marseilles, Zurich, Paris, the French countryside -- are not shown in their travelogue-esque glitz and glamour. It's winter; it's snowing and overcast most of the time, adding to the gloom of the title character's situation. Liman's camera work does not disappoint, and Matt Damon delivers a top-notch performance that will add `action star' to his resume' of credentials. The `romance' between Damon's character and his slightly-unwilling companion, played by German actress Franka Potente, is well-handled by the screenplay. There's no roll in the hay for the sake of a love scene here; the film demon-strates how these two people, both cut off from their pasts in manners of speaking, seek comfort from their fear and learn to trust one another. The action sequences are not the type seen in your average `bullets and profanity' pictures; they aren't gratuitous and, with one exception at the end (yes, in that re-shot, new ending), they're realistic.
Of course, there were three Bourne novels written by Robert Ludlum, and Doug Liman has previously stated that he can envision shooting all three as a trilogy of films starring the Jason Bourne character. I, for one, cannot see how that can be done, being how the first novel was all but ignored for the making of this film. But, the James Bond franchise continues to this day, some twenty-five years after the producers of those films abandoned the source material. Maybe Liman and Universal will surprise us. However, for this summer, this film is worth your money, especially if you like your action stars not wearing tights or swinging laser-swords.