Film Review: The Bourne Ultimatum

by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

The Bourne Ultimatum, (Cert 12A, 112 mins)
Stars: Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Albert Finney
Directed by Paul Greengrass 

THE Bourne Ultimatum is the one in which Jason Bourne, the trained assassin with amnesia, finally discovers who he is.

But, to be honest, when he does discover his real name, it is all a bit of an anti-climax.

After all, as Shakespeare said, what’s in a name?

What The Bourne Ultimatum really is is a chase film, from beginning to end.

There is hardly a moment when Bourne (as played by grim-faced Matt Damon) is not running, across streets, over balconies and through windows.

And he does it all over the world. It’s a chase that starts in Moscow and moves to Paris, London, Madrid, Tangier and finally New York.

Tracking him all the way is the CIA with the last word in surveillance equipment, all headed by a creepy chap in glasses played by David Strathairn who is determined to kill Bourne.

He is usually in some large office with numerous screens, barking orders at people. It seems they can listen to your mobile telephones, get pictures of you wherever you are and discover your location anywhere in the world.

Thus, other assassins are always on Bourne’s trail, trying to kill him.

At times, they almost succeed but Bourne, like all heroes, is imperishable: men with guns, knives and sometimes just fists always fail to get their man.

Bourne, you see, is a chap who knows all the tricks of the trade, best developed when he guides by mobile phone a British investigative reporter through a Waterloo station bristling with deadly CIA agents.

He gets a girl to accompany him on part of his adventure but Julia Stiles gets very little dialogue and stands around looking dumb much of the time.

There are the stunts – a destructive car chase, a car reversing off a roof, impossible leaps from window to window across alleyways, etc – and numerous flashbacks which will mean little to those who have missed the earlier movies.

But what is notable about this film is the over-flashy camerawork, hand-held for much of the time coupled with some very fast editing.

The car chase is a confused jumble of images – I was unsure which car had crashed and which had not – and a fist fight is equally confusing.

In fact, the camera is not so much hand-held as decidedly wobbly.

The story is wafer-thin, as much of the Bourne tale had been told in the previous two movies.

For this one, director Paul Greengrass – who directed the previous The Bourne Supremacy – concentrates almost entirely on action.

Those looking for character development and subtlety will have to look elsewhere.

The story is also rather silly – why is the CIA spending so much time on trying to kill a chap just because he might remember his name?

Damon is a good if unlikely action star – his looks are hardly classical – and he, too, gets little dialogue (the three writers could have probably written the script on the back of an envelope).

But it finally succeeds with its sense of urgency, breathless pace and a music score which pushes it all along beautifully.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk