impressive espionage thriller

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2005)

Matt Damon returns as secret agent Jason Bourne in "The Bourne Supremacy," a first-rate espionage thriller that boasts a fine performance from the always reliable Joan Allen as well.
The character made his first screen appearance in the wildly popular "The Bourne Identity" in 2002, a film based, as this one is, on a Robert Ludlow novel. Bourne is one of a handful of agents who have been turned into little more than mindless killing machines through a (now defunct) top secret mind-altering program. Despite suffering from a case of amnesia that has effective wiped out all memory of that time in his life, Bourne still has to deal with the guilt that comes from knowing all the horrible things he must have done while under the influence of the diabolical programming. As "The Bourne Supremacy" opens, we find Jason living in India, trying to maintain a low profile as he attempts to create some kind of a "normal" life for himself and his girlfriend. But, as always happens in these kinds of scenarios, reality intervenes, this time in the form of assassins sent out to kill him. As if that weren't enough, Bourne is also being hunted by some CIA bosses who mistakenly believe that he has recently killed two of their own agents. Thus, Bourne finds himself running for his life in a chase that takes him from India to Berlin to Moscow before the movie is over.
With the Ludlow novel as his source, Tony Gilroy has written a complex screenplay that respects the audience's intelligence even when what is happening on screen doesn't always rate too high on the plausibility meter. Amidst all the convoluted plotting, espionage doublespeak and hi-tech hardware that are the standard accoutrement's for the genre, Gilroy manages to stay focused on the human drama at the story's core, as a man struggles to piece together the puzzle of his life. Allen makes an effective foil as the agent who first suspects Bourne of killing some of her undercover operatives, then comes to believe in his innocence. Director Paul Greengrass keeps the action percolating along, maintaining a high level of suspense throughout. He uses a hand-held camera to convey the desperation of Bourne's plight and the fragmentation of his mind, often showing us incidents and events from the character's own point of view inter cut with subliminal snatches of disconnected memories. In addition, the lively, hurly burly editing keeps the picture constantly moving forward. Personally, I could have done with fewer car chase scenes towards the end, since I have always found characters interacting to be more compelling than automobiles interacting, but I suppose that, when it comes to action film audiences, the beast must inevitably be fed. On the positive side, John Powell has composed a dramatic musical score that really knows how to gin up the tension at crucial moments.
As an actor, Damon combines the seemingly paradoxical elements of strength and vulnerability necessary to make his character believable and touching. In Bourne, he seems to have found his perfect role.