Review of The Bourne Supremacy (2004) by Lorenzo V — 08 Aug 2012

"They took away his identity. Now he wants it back.".

When Jason Bourne is framed for a botched CIA operation he is forced to take up his former life as a trained assassin to survive.

REVIEW.

As "The Bourne Supremacy" opens, we find Jason living in India, trying to maintain a low profile as he attempts to create some kind of a "normal" life for himself and his girlfriend. But, as always happens in these kinds of scenarios, reality intervenes, this time in the form of assassins sent out to kill him. As if that weren't enough, Bourne is also being hunted by some CIA bosses who mistakenly believe that he has recently killed two of their own agents. Thus, Bourne finds himself running for his life in a chase that takes him from India to Berlin to Moscow before the movie is over. With the Ludlow novel as his source, Tony Gilroy has written a complex screenplay that respects the audience's intelligence even when what is happening on screen doesn't always rate too high on the plausibility meter.

Amidst all the convoluted plotting, espionage doublespeak and hi-tech hardware that are the standard accoutrement's for the genre, Gilroy manages to stay focused on the human drama at the story's core, as a man struggles to piece together the puzzle of his life. Joan Allen makes an effective foil as the agent who first suspects Bourne of killing some of her undercover operatives, then comes to believe in his innocence. Director Paul Greengrass keeps the action percolating along, maintaining a high level of suspense throughout. He uses a hand-held camera to convey the desperation of Bourne's plight and the fragmentation of his mind, often showing us incidents and events from the character's own point of view inter cut with subliminal snatches of disconnected memories. In addition, the lively, hurly burly editing keeps the picture constantly moving forward. As an actor, Damon combines the seemingly paradoxical elements of strength and vulnerability necessary to make his character believable and touching. In Bourne, he seems to have found his perfect role.