THE BOURNE IDENTITY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: violence, extreme abuse of deity

Rated:

It's really too bad some strong abuse of Jesus' name comes into this film, because otherwise it's an intelligent thriller that Mission: Impossible fans are going to love. A body is found floating in the Mediterranean sea, plugged with two bullet holes in his back and a mysterious code number in his hip. The man (Matt Damon) wakes up on a small fishing boat with no memory of what happened, or even who he is. In his search for his identity, he takes the bank number to the nearest Swiss bank and discovers a box full of passports, quadruple identities, a gun, and thousands in cash. According to the bank, he's Jason Borne and lives in Paris.

In the meantime, a Federal agent by the name of Conklin (Chris Cooper) is searching for a missing or rogue member of their team. Borne's mission was to assassinate a foreign dignitary who has caused no end of trouble for the States. Wombosi has come on international television and announced that a US assassin tried to murder him. Borne has gone missing. He hasn't made radio contact. Some of their team assume he's dead, but Conklin isn't convinced. There are signs to imply Borne is still alive, particularly after he shows up at the bank to collect everything in his security vault. Nearly captured at the American embassy, Borne hooks up with a gypsy girl, Marie (Franka Potente), who is willing to drive him to Paris for ten thousand bucks. Marie can't believe he has amnesia, but how else could they explain his loss of memory? Or all the things he's capable of? Information pops into his head at the drop of a hat. He's a skilled gunman, climber, sniper, and can flip five policeman to the floor in thirty seconds flat without breaking a sweat. He can run at high altitude without becoming winded and remembers license plate numbers after a glance. Obviously he was someone important... and someone's out to kill him.

After reaching Paris, Marie and Borne find themselves in hot water, with assassins, cops, and agents at every turn. Conklin is also getting squeezed by his employers to find Borne... or bring him down. As a fast-paced action thriller, The Borne Identity actually works. It's an intelligent piece of work, although somewhat sketchy. Clues are left out, and viewers are left to make up their own minds when it comes to certain plot twists. But the acting is very good, the fight scenes excellent, and the adrenaline high. Even so, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked to, primarily because it casts a bad light on the CIA and FBI.

Conklin, played by the ever-likable Chris Cooper, seems cool and collected in the beginning but takes to extreme measures at the end. His superior has the last laugh. The agents stab one another in the back (sometimes literally) and the whole premise is built up around assassination. I didn't like that aspect much, particularly when it comes to killing people. The fights get bloody. People are shot and killed, sometimes wounded in order for their captors to gain information. Jason doesn't hesitate at borrowing a gun and shooting people if they're shooting at him; he kills several people point-blank. (Ever heard of wounding them?) One fight in his Paris apartment with a madman involves stabbing with knives and a pen, which becomes embedded under the man's skin at one point. (He merely pulls it out and uses it against Borne.) Explosions rock buildings, a car chase creates massive pileups, and cops are flipped off their bikes. Two people are killed with a silencer; there's little blood but obvious results. A body is seen smashed on the pavement.

Other content issues intrude. Marie throws up after having been frightened half to death. Language isn't much of a problem, but abuse of deity is. I wasn't counting, but there were at least six GD's, seven abuses of Christ's name, and two or three uses of Jesus. There's also some swearing in French (without subtitles). I didn't note the f-word, but apparently there was one. There's no outright sex, but Marie and Borne do kiss passionately in the bathroom and she removes his shirt. (The next shot, however, has her waking up alone in bed, dressed modestly, and Borne offers to sleep on the floor when they're roomed together.)

I like my heroes to be reasonably good people, and my villains to be outright slime balls. Here's where The Borne Identity fails. Jason Borne is far too free with killing his opponents, and Conklin never did seem like much of a villain. I did enjoy it as a high-rise caper full of international espionage and mystery, but it's by no means the best spy thriller of the year.

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