OOOkay. I have no excuse for being absent from my own blog-thingy, but here it is, mid-August, and I've been AWOL since July. But I have been to the movies -- not as much as you'd think, given my predilection for the summer blockbuster -- so let's start with the Bourne Ultimatum, which needs no introduction.
In The Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon reprises his role as amnesiac assassin with a soul Jason Bourne, still schelpping around the world trying to apologize to the kin of people he's assassinated and take down the evil CIA offshoot that trained him and set him loose on the world. It's better than it sounds from that description, but despite nonstop action and excitement, the movie feels like it's missing some emotional connection. In the first -- and best -- of the Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity), Jason's struggle to discover his identity, then come to grips with the reality of his profession is set against his growing love affair with Marie (Franka Potente), who turns out to be as kick-ass interesting as Bourne is and gives the whole movie a dimension that takes it above the usual identity-revenge genre. In the second movie, The Bourne Supremacy, and now Ultimatum that dimension is absent and sorely missed.
There's a moment in Ultimatum when you think Bourne's heart may melt, but (like every moment in the movie) if flys by as Bourne whizzes from wherever to Tunisia to Madrid to Manhattan. The movie never stops long enough to catch its breath, or let the audience think about what's happening. I still can't tell you what Treadstone Blackbriar is all about -- even though it's supposed to be at the root of all this Bourne Anxiety.
The bottom line: even though the movie is highly entertaining in an action-packed way, and Matt Damon, Joan Allen (as a CIA operative who helps Bourne), and David Straithairn (as the head of Treadstone Blackbriar whatever) are all great, I never felt there was much emotional jeopardy -- it's a given that Bourne is going to get away from every tricky situation -- and there are no other characters who you really worry about. He needed to have someone -- whether that Nicky Parsons chick (Julia Stiles), who's out of the Paris garret and into Tangier in this installment, or an up-and-coming Treadstone trainee or someone targeted for assassination -- to save, to show why he's bothering, to bring back that dimension that Marie brought out, to make me care.