At first glance, aside from being blessed by the genetics Gods, Matt Damon doesn’t seem like the typical action movie star. The now-established actor, who’s been a mainstay of Hollywood productions for decades, cut his teeth as a wounded genius in Good Will Hunting struggling to maintain his defensive shield as those closest to him try to get him to recognise his potential. Roles like this don’t exactly make one seem primed to portray a prototypical gun-toting action hero. But Damon is an earnest performer. You want to believe in his characters’ version of reality. He’s not explicitly charming in the first of many Bourne films, The Bourne Identity, but he uses that charm more subtly to transform what could have been a cold-blooded killer into a sympathetic figure.
Jason Bourne is only in control when he’s able to beat up bad guys, with Doug Liman’s immersive direction ensuring that the film’s fast-paced action springs to life when necessary. The action scenes are sudden reminders of a past life for Bourne, who fights anyone in his way out of instinct, relying purely on muscle memory. It’s everyday life that eludes the amnesiac, who cannot remember anything about who he is or was once he is found in the Mediterranean Sea by local fisherman and has his wounds tended to.
He’s a relatively powerless protagonist, dwarfed by a world of order, where governments in foreign countries can be established or overthrown at the beck and call of shady men in suits gathered at CIA meetings. The main task at hand for these powerful figures is to kill the exiled African dictator Wombosi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who is threatening to leak incriminating information about the group behind his recent failed assassination attempt. Bourne has no idea why he is linked to these people— in fact, it will take some time for him to even be aware of this connection — as he finds himself caught in this web of espionage.
The action excites, the lead actor makes you care about his dilemmas, and this world is painted with enough slickness and authenticity to be both entertaining and bleak. Rounding out this plot (and our reasons to care about it) is German woman Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente), who’s also powerless, with her attempts to explain her situation at the American consulate in Zurich — where Bourne encounters her — proving fruitless. The suffocating weight of bureaucracy binds both characters together, with Bourne offering her $20,000 in cash to drive him to Paris, where he supposedly once lived. She knows it is probably unwise to take this risky offer, but she’s in dire straits financially, whereas he’s so far lost within himself and an unrecognisable world that this random stranger is his only hope.
Potente got her big break acting in Tom Twyker’s Run Lola Run, one of the finest action movies ever made. The tense showdowns in The Bourne Identity are no match for the adrenaline-pumping intensity of the chase scenes in Twyker’s 1998 film, but they’re a consistently good time, while Damon and Potente are pitch-perfect as unlikely lovers. Well, maybe that’s going too far; they’re unlikely lovers if we take their backgrounds and chance meeting at face value, but this is a Hollywood spy film, after all, so a romantic relationship is in order. Thankfully, it never feels artificial.
What makes The Bourne Identity such an enjoyable watch is that it doesn’t sacrifice dramatic urgency in favour of contrived plot beats, just as it never overdoes its stylised action. Each aspect of this world of espionage is perfectly balanced, setting up a sleek and action-packed spy film, with some solid drama and worldbuilding to boot. It may not be a timeless classic (not least because of the poorly-aged shot as Bourne uses a dead body as a damn hoverboard to sink through the air), but The Bourne Identity provides a consistently entertaining action experience, sets up this cinematic universe and its many sequels, and sticks the landing with an ending that allows it to work in its own right, irrespective of the rest of this franchise.
