Entertaining without the fluff.

Rating: Null/10 (21 July 2004)

Bourne Identity is a movie that seemingly should be placed in the category of the summer international espionage movie  a la XXX, Jack Ryan, and the grandfather of them all, Bond.
The Bourne Identity is bringing something else  basically, it's trying to hybrid character development and plot movement with the action genre. I don't know if it can be called a character piece or a plot piece  it's about a spy with amnesia. But what it does do is make smart choices, old film choices, and the characters become fully-embodied  it's a film that stares at you rather than winks at you.
It's pulled off because Liman (director) & Gilroy (writer) make some ultra-smart choices: limited use of gun play, using a very artistic and efficient fighting style called Kali, and the downplay of any action scene with reality elements (people do get injured, things that are blown up are still on fire a scene later, nobody takes 6 in the chest and keeps on ticking) and the quite surprising performance by Matt Damon. He plays this character straight and controlled and the character is all the better for it. If anything, the performance boiled down to what he didn't do, and his discipline really makes the character.
The same can be said for Marie (who book fans will remember as the Canadian economist) played by Franka Potente. Potente has an uncanny ability for making characters whose very nature seem preposterous seem very real. Most evidently done in 'the Princess & the Warrior'. She's a largely ignored talent, which I would imagine comes from the fact that she prefers quiet, downplayed performances (method performances) over the 'look at me' quality that most other women in her field choose.
You're not going to see this movie to see how spies deal with amnesia and how that relates to humanity as a whole, you're not really going to learn anything about yourself in the movie. But you won't be disappointed  it's a movie that recalls the golden years of actual location shoots, no effects, quality acting and chemistry, where movement of the camera meant something and where you don't smack your hand against your head with every cliché action man line.
It's one of the first films in recent years that hasn't made entertaining and stupid synonymous.