More Thoughts on The Bourne Ultimatum
This entry was posted on 8/5/2007 10:55 PM and is filed under Film Reviews,Musings.
If actors typically have but a small handful of roles that define them,
it’s also true that sometimes an actor completely defines the role. In
those cases, it’s not just quote-unquote impossible to envision anyone
else in the part; it’s that their own physicality and innate attributes
imbue the character with perhaps heretofore unscripted but now
inescapably essential traits. Such is the case with
Matt Damon and
amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne, né David Webb — the tightly coiled,
pit-bull seeker at the heart of the hard-charging
Bourne
trilogy.
Damon isn’t short, per se, but his compact frame hardly gives
off the air of someone who’s a professional killer. What Damon does
have is a swallowed intensity and intellectual awareness of his
surroundings, and
he impresses these traits upon Bourne, hardening his
close-set eyes to match a clenched jaw of resoluteness. With Damon, you
see the whirring inner motor of Jason Bourne, as he absorbs information
at a high rate of speed and then translates that into both rapid
analysis and breathless action. Despite any and all story points, he is
the jockey driving this series, exhorting it forward in inexorable
fashion. The utterly absorbing
The Bourne Ultimatum, then, finally delivers some redemption for Bourne, even if it’s chiefly of the cold-comfort variety.
For the review of the film, click here.
