A superman with partial amnesia fails to find himself

By Stephen Holden
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, New York
Friday, Aug 20, 2004, Page 20

Matt Damon tries to elude every manner of assassin in The Bourne Supremacy. PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL

It may sound odd to call a chilly, paranoid thriller like The Bourne Supremacy entertainment comfort food. But in the wake of 9/11, this globe-trotting post-cold-war melodrama, full of standard cloak-and-dagger intrigue, has the reassuring aroma of a home-cooked meal served while riding the world's smoothest roller coaster.

As the story unfolds at a whirring pace whose tremors flow like the seamless pulses in a sleek, percussive symphony, watching the movie feels like lying back after the meat loaf and mashed potatoes and being spoon-fed gourmet ice cream while the wind whistles in your ears.

There are no jihads or terrorists in sight and no apocalyptic scenarios, only dirty little secrets, as spies, counterspies and moles from Russia and the US tangle in a grubby story involving oil, sold secrets, murders and cover-ups. Nor are there flashy computerized embellishments or martial-arts stunts. This is high-speed action realism carried off with the dexterity of a magician pulling a hundred rabbits out of a hat in one graceful gesture. The crowning flourish is an extended car chase through the streets and tunnels of Moscow that ranks as one of the three or four most exciting demolition derbies ever filmed.

Film Notes Directed by: Paul Greengrass Starring: Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie), Brian Cox (Ward Abbott), Julia Stiles (Nicky), Karl Urban (Kirill), Karel Roden (Gretkov), Gabriel Mann (Danny Zorn) and Joan Allen (Pamela Landy) Running time: 120 minutes Taiwan Release: today

In this sequel to The Bourne Identity, many of the major hands who created the first film have returned. Doug Liman, the original director, is now an executive producer, and Paul Greengrass (who oversaw the docudrama Bloody Sunday) has taken over as director. The screenwriter Tony Gilroy is back, as are the cinematographer Oliver Wood and the composer John Powell.

Crouched in the eye of the storm once again is Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), the CIA-trained assassin who still has serious memory problems and can't recall why he is being hunted by everybody, although blurry flashbacks leave him with clues. As before, Jason spends almost the entire movie on the run.

The character, created by the novelist Robert Ludlum, is so resourceful that he might be described as Superman with partial amnesia. One of his favorite tricks is to call the people he's spying on and describe what he is observing through his telescopic lens. The movie reminds you that rhythms of film editing and collage-making have allowed Hollywood to make the chase movie a surefire format.

Other returning cast members include Franka Potente as Jason's sweetheart Marie (her appearance is brief) and Brian Cox, Julia Stiles and Gabriel Mann as CIA agents of varying rank. The Bourne Supremacy, like its predecessor, is not CIA-friendly. In the light of recent headlines, that skepticism lends it an extra frisson of credibility.

In a movie in which most of the dialogue consists of curt exclamations, Jason may amount to little more than an embattled cipher. But Damon, who has shed much of his boyish ingenuousness (he is beginning to suggest the grown-up Robert Wagner), plays him as a cunning escape artist and technophile, with lightning reflexes as well as a streak of sadness.

The actor's masklike features suit his chameleonic character, but in the rare moments that his face softens, there is the suggestion that he will be the loneliest man in the world the moment that he stops running. The trickle of emotion leaking through his pressurized stress lends the movie an emotional undertone subtly accented by the weary sighs in Powell's otherwise propulsive score.

The story begins in Goa, India, where Jason and Marie hide until the arrival of a killer (Karl Urban), dispatched by a Russian oil mogul (Karel Roden), abruptly ends their idyll. At the same time, the CIA is investigating the murder of two agents in Berlin, where a glaring fingerprint left at the scene of the crime points to Jason.

This time, a CIA deputy, Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), pressures her boss, Ward Abbott (Cox), to reopen a case that was closed two years earlier and bring Jason down. In short order, a CIA team led by Allen descends on Berlin. Meanwhile, Jason's flight takes him from Goa to Naples to Berlin to Moscow.

Plot and character ultimately don't matter much in a movie that's all about building and sustaining a mood in which visceral and emotional rhythms are blended into a high-gloss thrill ride in which every curve and dip is calculated. Where most Hollywood action movies, edited within an inch of their lives, use split-second leaps and flashes as visual jolts to camouflage holes, The Bourne Supremacy knows what it's doing. Its relentless speed not only puts you in Jason's shoes by suggesting the adrenaline rush of a fugitive who has no time to look around, but also suggests Jason's quick thinking. If you pay close attention, you won't get lost. And even if you do, it doesn't take away from the fun.