Liman respects the reality of his characters and situations more than one finds in most action-adventure flicks, and he handles all the elements skillfully.

Rating: Null/10 (17 June 2002)

The Bourne Identity - at the movies Directed by Doug Liman . Written by Tony Gilroy, adapted from the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum. Starring Matt Damon and Franka Potente. Support from Chris Cooper.
Jason Bourne (Damon) is pulled out of the Mediterranean by fishermen who at first think him dead. But he revives, and one of the fishermen, who apparently practices surgery as a hobby, digs two bullets out of his back and a small capsule out of his hip. The capsule contains the access number of a Swiss bank account.
Having been deposited by the fishermen on the Marseilles waterfront, Bourne heads for Switzerland and the numbered account. He has lost his memory, although he finds he knows English, French, and German, and in an early run-in with two Zurich cops who are hassling him as a homeless person, he discovers he is exceedingly proficient in martial arts as well.
The next day, he goes to the bank, signs in to the account, and finds in the safe deposit box numerous passports in his and others' names, all bearing his picture. Also, there are substantial sums of money in various currencies, as well as a gun. He leaves the gun and takes the rest in a red bank bag.
His movements are reported back to a CIA operations chief (Cooper) in Langley, who is reeling from Bourne's failure to assassinate an African leader (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was powerful as Simon Adebisi in the tv series, Oz ). Fearing that Bourne has at the very least compromised the covert op-and may even have turned renegade-he orders Bourne killed.
Seeking his identity and suspicious of what his past must have been, Bourne goes to the U.S. Consulate, where he finds himself pursued by Marine guards. Escaping the Consulate, he meets up with a vagabond young woman, Marie Kreutz (Potente) and offers her $20,000 to drive him to Paris, where one of his aliases, a Mr. Kane, has an apartment. There he finds himself the target of assassins. He doesn't know who is after him, or why, but ironically, the skills he has learned in that very life that now demands his demise, are all that keep him going. That and Marie's little red car.
This one is a boy's adventure fantasy with archetypal subtext. Nearly all the physical action is of the "don't try this at home" variety. But it is, for the most part, very well done, almost to the point of being believable. Given that one goes into this genre willing to suspend a whole lot of disbelief, the action is certainly acceptable, all except for one five or six story plunge down a stairwell, which one might accept only in a super-hero movie.
Martial arts and car chases are not among my favorite story elements, but Liman gives us only one, maybe two, encounters that shout "obligatory martial arts ballet". Others of his fights are quick and to the point, the way serious martial arts fighting would be in real life.

As for car chases, although I am no connoisseur, I've always thought the car-chases-train sequence in The French Connection to be the best chase I've ever seen. I'd say that Liman equals that masterpiece when he has the Parisian gendarmes chase Bourne and Marie through the streets of Paris in their little red car.
I find Damon convincing as an action hero, and Potente's character exudes the aura of a side-street, bathed in shadows and mist, which the pursued hero can duck into for respite. I love the way she lets the action come to her and then responds in a spontaneous and wholly believable manner that scarcely requires words.
Their relationship is chaste. They share a slightly awkward hug and kiss at one point. Would one wish for more "chemistry" between them? Well, Bourne does have a few things on his mind which are a bit more demanding of his attention than a sexual romp. I guess what I would have liked is for Marie to have mothered him, and for Bourne to have responded to her with more vulnerability. I know that he has had the vulnerability all but trained out of him, and he can't afford to let his guard down, but I would have wished for some embrace of genuine respite in which he accepts and succumbs to his need for her to hold him and make it all better.
Not to get too Oedipal about it, but Bourne has been reborn, having been all but dead and then passing through a symbolic, watery rebirth by which he has shed his past and has a chance to follow his better instincts-once he discovers what they are, for they can only be determined in contrast with what he once was. And Marie does have an accepting, protective attitude toward him, which, under more favorable circumstances, could blossom into the love of a lover. For lovers, at their best, mother each other as well.
I wish Liman had brought out that aspect of their relationship more, expanding the story's human dimension. But even as it is, he respects the reality of his characters and situations more than one finds in most action-adventure movies, and he handles them skillfully. We attended a Sunday matinee that had very few and scattered empty seats. The audience responded enthusiastically, and there was even a humorous scene which inspired communal laughter.
I liked the picture and recommend it, martial arts and all.