Watching The Bourne Identity (new in theaters June 14), I was enthralled. The story centers on Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), a CIA assassin suffering from amnesia who is hunted by the very government who has employed him. Why? Did he botch an assignment? Did he refuse an assignment? Does he have a piece of information in his amnesiac brain that could prove damaging if the world ever learned his secrets?
I wanted the questions answered. I wanted to find out who Jason was, was that his real name, was he ultimately a good guy or a bad guy. I wanted to learn if his CIA boss Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper) was on the side of right in stopping a renegade spy or just covering his own butt for a black-ops assignment that should never have been given in the first place. Directed by Doug Liman, I found The Bourne Identity to be both a tense thriller and a heady mystery. Best of all, it's good spy junk! The kind we haven't gotten very often since the Cold War ended.
That's why I was a little surprised that when I walked out of the recent preview screening, some of the audience members who were mulling about outside the theater were split into two different camps. Many were like me. They loved it. They found it more than thrilling. They found it smart and involving. They gave high marks to Damon, Cooper, and the rest of the cast. They remembered the car chase, and the different times Bourne had to use both his fighting skills and his intelligence to get out of jams. Best of all, they loved the story.
Then, there was this little cabal of naysayers off to the side who were taking a nice, big, proverbial wizz on the movie. Why? Get ready to yawn. It was SO different from the Robert Ludlum novel! Among their gripes: Damon was too young. They left out this. They left out that. This should have happened later. That didn't happen in the book at all.
OK, I just want to key everyone in on a little lesson I have learned
from doing this job off and on since 1989. The movie is NEVER, EVER going
to be as good as the book! NEVER! NEVER EVER! NEVER EVER EVER!!! If you
are in love with a book, do NOT go see the movie on which it is based.
It WILL disappoint. Heck, I would tell everyone to stop reading, if I wasn't
sure my e-mailbox would be deluged with angry rants from my various bibliophile
readers. I, of course, have not read the Ludlum book. I only know that
the story was originally turned into a multi-part miniseries in the late
1980s starring Richard
Chamberlain.
And I'll bet THAT wasn't as good as the book either.
Look, a movie and a novel are two TOTALLY different things. They have different sensibilities. A book will almost always be deeper than the movie it is based on. So, where does that leave The Bourne Identity? Well, if you haven't read the Ludlum novel, you're in for one heck of a movie! Bourne is a guy who was rescued by a fishing boat with two bullet wounds in his back and no memory. When he gets on dry land, he goes to seek the truth. All he has to go on are the numbers of a safe deposit box in Prague.
Gradually, though, he starts to learn that he is not just some regular Joe. If someone says something to him in English, Greek, or French, he can understand them instantly. When he is hassled by cops, he beats both of them down in seconds with their own nightsticks. When he goes into a public place, he is able to instantly memorize each face, tell who is left-handed and who is right. He can even memorize license plates. The safe-deposit box reveals multiple passports, thousands of dollars of cash, and a gun. It all gives him a name that sounds right. Jason Bourne. Soon, Bourne is hunted by authorities and contract killers wherever he goes.
His only ally is an attractive young woman who he pays $20,000 to to give him a ride from Prague to Paris. Her name is Marie, and she is a self-proclaimed gypsy. A wanderer. A free spirit. On the run, Jason comes to care for her, and she for him. But their safety is almost always in jeopardy, and all they want is the truth and then a fresh start.
Good stuff! Er, if you haven't read the book.
If you have read the book, Damon is too young. You don't get enough information about his botched assignment. The various killers who hunt him aren't fleshed out like they are in the novel. You don't get as much of an insider's view into the dangerous game of international espionage.
Blah, blah, blah.
To lovers of the Ludlum book, stay away. You'll be more disappointed than a bunch of thirtysomething Star Wars geeks hoping for an R-rated cut of Episode II. To the rest of us, this is the movie of the moment. It's a darn shame that the Powers That Be picked this weekend, though, to open the film. The Bourne Identity faces major competition not only from Scooby-Doo and Windtalkers, but also from the two CIA thrillers already in theaters--The Sum of All Fears and the insipid Bad Company. A month later or a month earlier, and this would be the movie to see.
But what are you gonna do? I think it takes three movies before a director can actually be labeled as "one of my favorites." With Swingers, Go, and now The Bourne Identity, Doug Liman is most certainly one of my favorites. I can't wait to see what he does next.
Hopefully, it will be a sequel to this movie! I've been throwing possible titles back and forth with friends and acquaintances for a couple of weeks now. Maybe Bourne could get amnesia again and forget his identity. In which case, the follow-up could be called "I Wasn't Bourne Yesterday." Or maybe Jason could adopt a new alias for another assignment. A name like ... oh, I don't know, Jason Wild. In which case, the sequel could be titled "Bourne to Be Wild!" Or, hey, since most of the action in this film takes place in Europe, how about moving stateside in ... "Bourne in the USA?" Finally, there is the inevitable X-rated ripoff. Guys, who out there can resist ... "The Porn Identity?"
I'll stop now.
The Bourne Identity is rated PG-13 for violence and language.
CORRECTION: Last week in my review of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood," I wrote that the three Ya-Ya sisters kidnap the Sandra
Bullock character and take her back home with them to Georgia. I was
wrong. It was Louisiana. Thanks to all you yo-yos ... er, ya-yas out there
who corrected me.
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