The Bourne Spy Project

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2004)

It's weird reading my original comment on "The Bourne Identity," because it turns out Chris Cooper is NOT uncharismatic (I still hated him in "Lone Star"), and more importantly, Tony Gilroy does not suck.
The writing here is the best part. It's been two years and I still haven't gotten around to reading the book, but as a stand-alone film, the three sides butting heads is an effective and well-realized spy thriller. No great one-liners, but some well-defined characters (and character acting) from everyone involved. Even Julia Stiles.
Was the decision to shoot the entire movie like "The Blair Witch Project" intentional, or just bad filmmaking? This is the first American film from director Paul Greengrass, and I'm not familiar with his work-- but when there's SO much more going on than three kids in a forest, isn't it important that we actually see the locations, the actors, the thrown punches and the crashed cars?
Cinemtograher Oliver Wood also shot the first film, so I'm not really sure what happened. There's a fight in an apartment during the first third of the film, and I couldn't see anything at all. The rest of the movie was just a hair better. If your Uncle Pete showed you a home movie shot like this, you'd turn it off in the middle. The writing, the STORY, kept me riveted, but the movie I made in my head is much better than the schizophrenic, 40-jump-cuts-a-minute film I just watched.
Which is not to say the film should have been a prettily-shot, sterile Hollywood production. I understand they were going for gritty. I think they overshot their goal.... and I'm not mad at them, I'm just really kind of irritated. You could've handed the camera to someone else, Uncle Pete. It doesn't make you any less of a man.