(Originally published June 14, 2002)
What gives Doug Liman's new thriller, "The Bourne Identity," such a nostalgic kick, is that it retains a whiff of the 1980s, a time when the espionage novel flourished and popular culture reinforced the idea that the CIA was far more sophisticated than recent events have revealed it to be.
The film, which Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron adapted from the 1980 best-seller by Robert Ludlum, wisely pulls in the reins on the author's iron-horse prose and updates the gadgetry without sacrificing the mood, which is at times hysterical and at other times, well, hysterical.
Liman, who directed "Swingers" and "Go," does his job well, reducing the world to the size of a postage stamp while focusing on a group of gun-toting characters hopping between Zurich and Paris as if they were zipping between Milo and Meddybemps.
After "The Sum of All Fears," a disappointment that looked ridiculous in the face of real life, "The Bourne Identity" offers thrills that share nothing with current events and, better yet, never once wish to be timely. It's no antique, but there's also no mistaking that its considerable spirit is inspired by the past--which, as these things go, turns out to be a gift.
In the film, Matt Damon is Jason Bourne, an amnesiac spy with bullet holes in his back and a computerized capsule implanted in his hip who's pulled from the rain-swept waters of the Mediterranean by a fisherman.
Without any knowledge of who he is or how he nearly became fish bait, Bourne, driven almost purely by instincts he can't fully grasp, launches into action in an effort to learn his identity.
Using his only clue--the Swiss bank account number hidden within the capsule--he slips into Zurich, steals into one of its banks and sifts through a safe-deposit box, in which are stacks of cash, a loaded gun and several passports.
The problem? While each passport bears his photo, each also bears a different identity beneath the image. Bourne's more pressing concern? The CIA has been alerted to his presence and have unleashed their agents en masse to do away with him.
The 90-minute-chase that ensues plays mostly by the rules, but since it pairs Bourne with Franka Potente, the terrific German actress who starred in the must-see thriller "Run Lola Run," that chase is more fun, imaginative, sexy and diverting than it likely would have been otherwise.
With Chris Cooper as the lead CIA agent out to get Bourne, and Julia Stiles and Clive Owen both adding star power in slight, throwaway roles, "The Bourne Identity" is so engaging, it will hopefully start its own cinematic religion--and be born again in Ludlum’s two sequels, "The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Grade: B+
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