An amnesiac wakes up on the shore of an island with gunshot wounds. He soon finds that assassins are hunting him while he must also deal with discovering who he is and why he’s able to fight like a seasoned karate expert in this action thriller starring Matt Damon and directed by Doug Liman. The film itself is a relatively intriguing high concept spy thriller with a good performance by Damon and solid direction by the talented Liman. The film only stumbles every so often when it becomes too much action and not enough plot development during stretches.
Matt Damon must feel like he’s playing follow the leader with this film being released only two weeks after his pal Affleck’s own chance at a spy film franchise. Damon, like Affleck, has a pretty good chance to have a long running franchise because The Bourne Identity is one very interesting and thrilling spy film. In my humble opinion, this film far surpasses Affleck’s new film in excitement, intelligence and just plain entertainment value.
Director Doug Liman (Go, Swingers) was a very interesting choice for what is a big budget summer action film considering his past two films weren’t big budget or high profile films at all. Thankfully for Universal, Liman manages to deliver a stylized and fresh look to the genre. The action sequences are well filmed and full of the appropriate quick cuts inherent to the genre. The car chases in particular, are exciting to behold and more interesting than most because they don’t overstay their welcome. Liman does sometimes lapse into stretches where the film becomes all action and the plot is put on hold but they are few and far between. Based on the Robert Ludlum novel, the screenplay by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron is the perfect mix of romance, action and intrigue.
The acting is also uniformly done well. Matt Damon actually does quite well in his role as Jason Bourne because he makes one feel for the character’s unusual plight. Supporting performances by Julia Stiles, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen and Franka Potente are strongly acted without becoming overly dramatic or cheesy as they could have become. The film also takes full advantage of its beautiful European setting. The locations throughout the film are all strikingly beautiful and make for a very cool setting for a spy film such as this one.
Overall, The Bourne Identity is a well-acted, action-packed and smartly written spy thriller that easily could become the sleeper hit of the summer.
Rating: 88
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