The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne films may not be as complex and layered as the Robert Ludlum novels were but they have acquired a respectability beyond mere action films. A large credit for that has to go to Matt Damon, who even while ruthlessly killing men in hand-to-hand combat never fails to convey the impression that he would rather be somewhere else.

As a troubled man trying both to escape his past as well as find it, former spy Jason Bourne is clouded by doubt and uncertainty. And Damon conveys it effectively.

There was a brief interlude in the second part of this trilogy, The Bourne Supremacy, when Bourne had found some peace with Marie Franka Potente in India. But that8217;s all over. Marie was killed by the same men that Bourne thought he had escaped, and in Ultimatum, he is again on the move, trying to piece together his life and doing what it takes to stop anyone who comes in his way.

In that sense The Bourne Ultimatum is a disappointment. As the film moves from England to Spain to Morocco to New York which as Bourne realises is 8220;home8221;, you never get one close look at Bourne. There is too much happening 8212; some superb car chases, metro terminal races, house crashing through narrow Tangier streets, fistfights 8212; and through it all the camera never holds still.

Except for one small perfunctory scene with another CIA agent called Nicky Parsons Stiles, we never get to know how it feels like for Bourne as he gets close to the ultimate truth. We get the sense of isolation that Bourne feels but the filmmakers don8217;t let us get too close either.

The Bourne Ultimatum is more about the CIA, and its morally dubious ways, including the fact that it may be keeping a tab on all cellphone conversations around the world and that it is finding ways to justify it. One word mentioned on a mobile has a senior journalist of The Guardian invite death.

Albert Finney could have put some gravitas on the proceedings as the man holding clues to what made Jason Bourne who he is. But he is dismissed in a few final moments.

As an action thriller, The Bourne Ultimatum is again miles ahead of its counterparts, both in how Bourne out-thinks his chasers and how we actually believe all of it. But, only as an action thriller. You never get the answer to the one question posed by the Bourne trilogy: Who is Jason Bourne?