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Review

Hold on to your beanies, boys and girls, this is gonna be one helluva ride. Make sure trays and seats are in the upright position and all seatbelts are fastened for there’s no guarantee by the end of the excruciatingly exciting third chapter in the Bourne films, The Bourne Ultimatum, that you’ll still be standing, in your seat, breathing or conscious by the film’s end. It’s that pulse-pounding, and it’s that good.

After winning an Oscar® for writing Good Will Hunting and starring in a series of commercially viable and then unreliable projects, Matt Damon turned the next corner in his career by starring in 2002’s gritty thriller The Bourne Identity, based on the Robert Ludlum novel. It was so successful both artistically and financially that a sequel was in order, The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, and it was an even bigger hit with both the critics and the public. Three years later, the director of Supremacy, Paul Greengrass, fresh off his Oscar® nom for the terrific United 93, and Damon reteam for what is the best of the trilogy. Whatever else Matt Damon does, no matter what direction his career takes, it will be a tough act to follow as to be as completely satisfying on-screen as he is in this career-defining role of Jason Bourne.

In almost every scene of this edge-of-your-seat thriller that brings chase and fight set pieces to new heights, Damon brings a maturity and immediacy that, though not lacking in either of the first two films, has been amped up for this final go-round. And it’s fitting to the quest that Jason Bourne is now on, for with his memory mostly intact, he attempts to return home to fill in the last missing pieces and have answered the questions that have been gnawing at him for years.

Bourne’s journey begins in Moscow, and the roller-coaster ride doesn’t stop until the final credits. Escaping the Russian police in a chase scene that neatly opens the film, Greengrass ups the ante with Bourne’s next destination, London, as the agent – still on the run from various local police departments and the CIA which still is out to terminate him – makes contact with a newspaper reporter who has discovered one of the pieces of Bourne’s puzzle from a well-placed source. Thus is set in motion an amazing cat-and-mouse game within the confines of Waterloo Station. The sequence must last almost ten minutes, and every single second is hold-your-breath exciting.

Back home, CIA operative Pam Landy (the always great Joan Allen) is reintroduced as she and newcomer to the series, section chief Noah Vosen (David Strathairn in a terrific turn), bicker as to what is to be done about the renegade agent. It is clear from the start that Bourne may have an ally in Landy, but Vosen, for reasons that are initially unclear, sees Bourne as a national security threat and demands his immediate execution.

Now in Spain to track down the source of the article, Bourne and the mysterious insider are both the target of CIA assassins. This operation, as was the London escapade, is under the watchful eye of Vosen as he safely gives orders from his New York office all the while watching pinpoint satellite coverage that would have George Orwell cringing. It’s a new era in espionage and from this vantage point, the agency seems ready. (So why haven’t they yet captured Bin Laden? That’s another movie.)

From here, the locales include Paris, Tangier, Morocco and, in the final set piece, New York City. Each location is particularly good, as both a backdrop for the story and as a dressing for the non-stop action. Oliver Wood’s extraordinary camerawork captures the flavor of each city while maintaining a tension that is almost unbearable. All the technical aspects of the film, under the skillful eye of director Greengrass, are exemplary, each contributing in making this an enthralling viewing experience.

But it’s that cast too that keeps you pinned to your seat. Thanks to the superior text by writers Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, the ensemble recites first-rate dialogue and finds themselves in totally believable situations, not a mean feat in thrillers such as these. Damon, Allen, Stiles (who makes her best impression as CIA op Nicky Parsons) all return in top form, with Strathairn, Glenn and Finney bringing an air of duplicity masked in patriotism to their roles. They all make great adversaries.

The Cold War has long been dead, but the post-9/11 international espionage film is alive and well and has hit its zenith with The Bourne Ultimatum. As director Doug Liman did with the first Bourne film, the bar has been raised, and Greengrass has risen to the challenge in remarkable ways, making it an almost mission impossible for the next globe-trotting secret agent to follow this job well done.

 -- David Bleiler