A silly spy thriller, with the usual double-crosses, gunplay, and car chases, but guided by a sensibility that strives for propulsive realism, even in nonsense. Paul Greengrass, who established himself as director of Bloody Sunday, a documentary-like depiction of the Derry massacre of civil rights marchers by British paratroopers, was recruited for the second film in this Ludlum-derived/Damon-starring franchise, which I never would have been interested in otherwise. The filmmaking is fractured and in your face, but well suited to the situation of the swift thinking CIA assassin caught in a web of deceit and threat, pursuing and pursued in the classic Hitchcock fashion. You have to think along with the protagonist, and do it on the fly, figuring it all out as you hurtle through the story. Matt Damon is surprisingly effective in the lead, a remorseless operative reaching for real remorse, and the reliable Joan Allen and Brian Cox add dimension to their formulaic CIA bosses. If you gotta make this sort of film, you might as well make it smart and fast as a whip. (2004, dvd, n.) *7-* (MC-73, RT-80.)
No comments:
Post a Comment