I figure that waking up on a boat, filled with bullet wounds and having had someone perform minor surgery on you would suck. It would probably suck more if you had absolutely no memory of who you are, where you are, who these fisherman who saved you are, or why you were filled with bullet wounds. And why was there a bank number inserted into a laser pointer implanted into your hip? This is how The Bourne Identity opens up.
Matt Damon is Jason Bourne, the formerly-unconscious amnesiac. He decides that the best lead he has in discovering his identity is to head to Switzerland, where the bank number recovered from his hip points to. He gets to the bank with the little money the fisherman gives him, and discovers that his name is in fact Jason Bourne. He’s also a bunch of other names from many other countries. And for some reason, there’s a gun in his safety deposit box. There’s also a lot of money, so he takes the money and passports, but leaves the gun. “What does that mean”, another character later questions. The answer is “not much”, except that maybe Bourne didn’t want a gun.
He soon learns that he can fight, and uses this skill whenever the plot starts to slow down. The film will throw an assassin at him so that we can watch a one-on-one fight sequence, so that we don’t get bored. A group of men in suits, led by Chris Cooper, is hunting Bourne down for reasons that are explained much later in the film. But they send a bunch of people, as well as the police, after him throughout the film. A highlight is a car chase sequence, which surprises us because Bourne didn’t seem like he has the ability to drive so well in him.
Accompanying Bourne on his quest to find out who he is, as well as avoid being killed, is a girl he meets in Zürich. Her name is Marie (Franka Potente), and Bourne pays her $20,000 for a ride to Paris. Along the way, she learns that she’s now a part of the plot and decides to stay with Bourne instead of going to the police like he suggests. Her decision is rather rash and doesn’t come off as realistic, which is odd considering how much that the film seems to bask in its attempted realism.
The main draw to this film, and by extension, the series as a whole, is that it strives to get away from the heavy use of CGI in action films, instead, it tries to make everything that happens feel realistic. This works well, and it really draws you in to the film’s atmosphere and story. Being drawn in means you’ll overlook some of its flaws, like how the story isn’t really all that important in the long run, or how it runs its course way before the film is ready to end, meaning the last half hour of the film is heavily reliant on wrapping things up that you’ve stopped caring about.
What makes The Bourne Identity work is the focus on the characters involved in the story. Not only do we get entertaining action sequences, like the aforementioned car chase, but we get a lot of character development. As Bourne regains his memory, we learn more about him, just as he does. This device allows us to grow with him, and puts us in similar shoes to his partner Marie. We understand her mentality through most of the film, because she is learning things about Bourne as we are, but since the film usually stays on Bourne’s point of view, we get his side of things as well.
Possibly the biggest problem that The Bourne Identity has is that the payoff at the end of the film is seriously anti-climactic. There’s a lot of tension throughout the film, and you watch Jason Bourne have to deal with tough situations in an attempt to avoid death. Then, when the tension should finally get a big release, and the questions we’ve wondered for most of the film should get solved, it feels like a big letdown. We get our answers, but they aren’t what we want. They don’t resolve some of the questions we have, and the ones they do answer are the smaller questions that we don’t care all that much about.
A bonus in a film like this is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are a couple of moments where the characters joke with one another, helping further to break up large chunks of story. One scene that made me laugh was one where Bourne talks to Marie about pulling off something akin to a heist. She must locate the exits, count the number of heads in the room, and remember everything she sees. But that isn’t what happens. I won’t ruin the scene for you, because it’s rather humorous, but suffice to say that it makes fun of entire movies where things like this actually happen.
The Bourne Identity is a lot of fun, if not a slight bit too long for the story contained within. By the end, you won’t care about the questions that get resolved, and instead will wonder what else there is to learn about Jason Bourne. I suppose that’s what the first film in a series should do, so consider it a success in that regard. The ride is fun too, with solid, interesting characters taking part in entertaining action scenes. Identity sets up the franchise well, sucking the audience into the world of Bourne.
