Reviews

This could have been something really fine. Dafoe, Jacob, and Neil are wasted.

The script seems like a half-hearted attempt to "do" a Joseph Conrad. The director seems lost. Odd, considering he wrote the screenplay--somehow, you would have expected more. It feels more like a project for his resume.

Read the book instead--it's wonderful.

This seems to have been a European-financed project. I don't remember hearing of it back in 1995. Was it even released in North America? I discovered it through an IMDB search.

A fun movie, but cold and hollow. It tries too hard to be quirky. The Coen brothers do this kind of thing so much better. Witness The Big Lebowski or O Brother, where the characters are strange and amusing, but you still feel they matter as human beings.

Hackman is fine, as usual, and steals the show. Huston's part is too small.

I read Robert Ludlum's obit in the Economist and so had to read one of his books. I picked the Bourne Identity. The Economist was right: Ludlum was an awful writer who did brilliant plotting. You stay up to three a.m. to get to the last page.

The Bourne Identity uses a sure-fire hook: a man fished out of the sea with a load of bullets in his carcass, minor brain damage, and no memory. There are only a few clues to whom he might be--a numbered Swiss bank account, heavy-duty martial skills, espionage instincts, etc.

And he's got nothing. No money, no ID, nothing. And excellent reasons to believe someone stills wants him dead. And he suffers terrible migraines. And flashbacks. Did I mention flashbacks? So right away, you're pulling for him. He re-enters the world, living by his wits.

Crucially, you are a long way into the book before the truth starts to emerge. But even then, it is murky. The CIA, the Vietnam war, international terrorism, etc. Clearly, he was involved in something big and nasty.

Not so with this movie. Almost immediately, you see the US government connection. Good-bye suspense.

And good-bye human interest. In the book, Jason is tortured ad nauseam--as is the reader by Ludlum's prose--by the question of just what kind of person he really is. It's barely there in the movie. The same for character depth. You really don't end up caring much about Jason, Marie, anybody.

In the book, Marie is forced to join him, against her will. With time, she becomes his ally, adding her own valuable skills and knowledge to help Jason survive and triumph. In the movie, Marie is merely this lost, clueless "gypsy".

I don't know anything about the director, but can't help getting the impression that he came up doing rock videos and TV commercials. The camera work is very edgy. It is meant to look hip. And now they let him do a real movie. Bad decision.

The action stuff is very good. All the chases and fights.

The actors were quite good. Matt Damon is wasted in something like this.

How did this thing get past being a script?

How did Helen Mirren and Julie Christie become involved in this project?

It sort of feels like they were all at a party and someone said, "Let's make up a movie!" And they started writing, with everybody throwing in ideas. And some rich guy who was very drunk said, "I'll put down the money!"

And so they went and did it.

The ending just peters out. It's as if they were utterly bored. Or completely embarrassed. Or the rich guy stopped paying. Likely all three.

This is one of those rare stinkers that leaves me feeling bad. It's like I've been used. It's like someone ran sewage through my brain.

The only antidote is to go read a good book. Or see a real movie--i.e. something made by people who cared.

I think the opening credits said something about the government of Iceland being involved. Maybe the rich guy got some kind of tax break or something. So at least somebody came out ahead.

One long, long pop/rock video.

Loved the opening sequence: the Nature Boy song leading into voice over narrative by the heartbroken young man starting to type/tell the story.

Did the style remind anyone else of Coppola's Dracula? That is, the "outdoor" sets and the edgy camera work. I'll bet it was an influence. They even both have references to drinking absinthe and seeing the green fairy.

The characters are flat and everything is pretty darn predictable, but that's OK. It's a fun movie that doesn't take itself seriously.

Long and boring. Tries very hard to be DEEP. The screenplay should have been edited into something tight and focused. But SS wrote it himself. And when you're SS, I guess nobody's got the guts to tell you the truth. Think of John Cleese in that old Monty Python sketch, where he plays the drunken Scottish director who runs around shouting "It's GREEET!! Ah love it!!" SS must be surrounded by these people.

Jude Law is fine and fun, as usual. And the kid is very good. Very talented. They were wasted on this movie.