Review: The Bourne Ultimatum

The fall of the Berlin Wall wasn't the end of history; the Bourne trilogy is. The series of films based on Robert Ludlum's spy novels has defied the fundamental rule of sequels by soaring ever higher with each installment. The Bourne Ultimatum isn't just better than its fine predecessors, it's one of the best films of the decade.

Director Paul Greengrass, who also made the documentary-like 9/11 drama United 93, uses the spy-thriller form to explore our greatest anxieties about international affairs: arbitrary use of power, the ultimate effect of torture, means vs. ends in the war on terror. Like America in the fourth year of the Iraq war, Jason Bourne can't remember how he got into this. As he gets closer to the answer, The Bourne Ultimatum becomes just as much about the system that created him, and the movie goes all the way back to the 1960s and an historic political thriller to shed light on these issues.

At its foundation, Ultimatum is a masterpiece of muscular action cinema. Nearly every shot is handheld, the film stock is often grainy, cuts come at breakneck speed and the zooms are mind-blowing. Greengrass brings so much twitching energy to the film that this technique looks urgent, not like an affectation or a retro effect. The stylistic high points of Ultimatum are a long hand-to-hand fight with no dialog or music and an epic pursuit through the streets of Manhattan. Calling this breathtaking sequence of clips a car chase is like calling Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" a portrait painting.

Every character is all business in this joyless world. Matt Damon exudes exhaustion in his third and best outing as Bourne. David Strathairn is consummately unlikeable, but so grim that he never descends into villainhood. Joan Allen seems a little flat at first but soon recaptures the crackling energy of her performance in The Bourne Supremacy.

The movie's larger agenda is embedded throughout, but its most intriguing appearance is in an extended section in the middle that's set in Tangiers. In numerous ways, it's a clear reference to Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 classic The Battle of Algiers, which illustrated the outcome of heavy-handed tactics by French colonial forces trying to hold on to Algeria. The age of Abu Ghraib has seen its reflection in Algiers, and Ultimatum gives the mirror an extra turn by making an American its victimized hero.

This isn't a scolding liberal tract or even a lament, exactly. Even while making obvious statements about the current war and corruption, it does so in the language of dramatic characters and globe-trotting suspense, not ideology. For genre reasons, Ultimatum lacks the ambivalence of Pontecorvo's film, but it knows not to simply finger one suspect in today's state of affairs and leave it at that. As a result, it's a film of its time but also much more. Greengrass and company have created the work that may lay this period on the line for generations to come.

Quick takes: Sunshine, Zodiac

Sunshine: It boldly reaches for the gravity and spectacle of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and although the plot finally stumbles, Sunshine is worth seeing for its ambition alone. Fifty years from now, the sun is dying prematurely and a small crew is piloting a bomb into its center to rejuvenate it. They seem to half expect doom from the minute we meet them, holed up in a tiny craft protected from the burning rays by a huge shield that makes thundering noises as its tiles shift around. This is a space story for the age of global warming and shuttle accidents, more interested in survival than in aspirations. Danny Boyle's breathless direction, set to a great soundtrack, is the best special effect here. A strong ensemble cast and editing jolts by Chris Gill add to the experience. It's too bad writer Alex Garland gave up on the psychological drama among the crew and went for an easy, implausible ending. The first two-thirds of Sunshine is blistering hot.

Zodiac: David Fincher's story of the long hunt for the Zodiac, a 1970s serial killer, sweats the kinds of details that Sunshine avoids. The murders themselves, and even the murderer, are just the triggers that set the story in motion. Over nearly three hours, Zodiac tracks a reporter, a detective and a cartoonist as they track the mysterious killer who sent cryptic messages to local newspapers. When the killings stop and the protagonists keep sifting through clues year after year, it becomes clear they're after something more than justice. They get older and so does Northern California, which has rarely been captured with such perfect pitch. Starting in a leafy suburb in the summer of 1969 and ending decades later, Zodiac carries a strong undercurrent of innocence lost.

The soundtrack king

My friend Goh Nakamura sings, plays guitar, and writes great songs, but he and I do have one thing in common: We both don't update our blogs enough. That's why I stopped checking gohnakamura.com regularly and missed his latest Hollywood deals. Goh's song "Daylight Savings" will be included in Feast of Love, set for release Sept. 14, and also on the film's sountrack. He'll also be playing on the soundtrack of American Gangster, a little indie picture coming out in November, starring up-and-comers Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. I kid, of course. By the way, this is the second time Goh's worked with Ridley Scott, having also played on A Good Year. Congratulations, Goh!