Movie Review

The Bourne Ultimatum

A Movie Review by Susan Frome

The third (and perhaps the last) in the series about Jason Bourne, CIA brain- washed “computerized killer,” who is managed back home by a huge bank of computers, focuses on Bourne remembering whom he might actually be. It turns out that he doesn’t really like his job as a CIA killer. As soon as he realizes this, he is in serious trouble, not only because the bad guys after him, but also his CIA mates. The top baddy executives must get rid of him since he now knows too much. And this is where Ultimatum starts. Most thrillers set up the plot and characters and locations and then come to the chase at the end. Here, the entire movie is the chase.

This is a novelty in moviemaking and at first quite confusing, especially if you haven’t seen the former two “Bourne” movies. But the screenwriters Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi have adapted the novel by Robert Ludlum very well, especially in this third part where we need to find out bits and pieces of the past, through flashbacks mostly. They are worked into this chase story, taking out a few seconds from the on-screen action to show us what happened to Bourne before, his being tortured scenes, his murdered loved one, CIA leaders who are really the enemies, etc.

Yet the action keeps moving, breathlessly. At one point Bourne is trying to meet up with a reporter from the Guardian in London because he seems to know a lot about Bourne which he now writes about in his column. Bourne lets him know that he will meet him at the Waterloo station, the busiest in London. Bourne is able to follow the reporter and, by cell phones, tell him what to do and where to go as Bourne realizes that the writer is being followed by bad guys and the CIA. Through many tricks, maneuvers, and stratagems, it appears that Bourne has saved the reporter – except when the reporter does something stupid.

Among many things that are done well in this movie are the photography (Oliver Wood) and editing (Christopher Rouse). Somehow these gentlemen have worked so well with English director Paul Greengrass that the results are stunning. If you’re thinking of becoming an editor, this is the film to study (along with JFK). There are several rooftop chases, sometimes involving three characters: Julia Stiles is being chased by a Moroccan killer while Bourne is chasing the killer to save Ms. Stiles. They all have to jump from building to building, sneak through narrow, too-quiet corridors which are people-less. The shots out of the windows of Tangiers rooftops in a very bright Moroccan sun while our three chasers creep and sneak along are thrilling.

As is clear, the plot forces Bourne to almost go around the world. We open in a Russian prison cell, move on to Paris, London, Tangiers, back to London, and on to Langley, Virginia where Bourne finally finds what he’s been looking for: the men who made him into a killing machine, which he does not, deep down, want to be. This is why Matt Damon is very good for the role. What we see is a very determined face, hardly any expression as if there is no emotion there anywhere; but because Mr. Damon still has a boyish look and blondish hair, we intuitively have hope for him. In the meantime, he moves with soft, masculine strength through the movie, straddling the hard line between computerized murderer and the good guy. That’s not so easy to pull off, but Damon does it.

He finally meets up with his “makers,” the cool but cruel administrator David Strathairn, always a wonderful actor, Scott Glenn, another cool very bad guy, and Albert Finney, a not really believable sinister doctor.

One other actor who must be mentioned is Joan Allen, always good to see. She is focused, strong, in character even though she’s not visible enough. She really deserves to be in some well-written, dramatic projects.

The Bourne Ultimatum is not a great film. Some like to put it in a recently created genre – a “great action-thriller.” Perhaps that is true. However, a “great” film has to cover many areas, not just relegated to a simple term like “action-thriller.” Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest is a great film – and a great “action-thriller” too. It has to do with “Everyman” (Cary Grant) entering the criminal world by accident and then having to deal with real people trying to kill him and a woman he can’t trust whom he may actually have to eventually help. He finds himself in a position far beyond just caring about the money he makes and the suits he buys. Here we may have less violent action, due to the growth of the genre in our growing violent world, but we have three-dimensional characters in three-dimensional situations.

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