Movie Review: The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy
Directed by: Tony Gilroy.
Written by: Tony Gilroy & Dan Gilroy.
Starring: Jeremy Renner (Aaron Cross), Rachel Weisz (Dr. Marta Shearing), Edward Norton (Retired Col. Eric Byer, USAF), Stacy Keach (Retired Adm. Mark Turso, USN), Dennis Boutsikaris (Terrence Ward), Scott Glenn (Ezra Kramer), Corey Stoll (Zev Vendel), Neil Brooks Cunningham (Dr. Dan Hillcott), Zeljko Ivanek (Dr. Donald Foite), Albert Finney (Dr. Albert Hirsch), David Strathairn (Noah Vosen), Louis Ozawa Changchien (LARX #3).

Through the first three films in the series, the Bourne movies represent modern, American action cinema at its finest – especially the two installments directed by Paul Greengrass. Yes, Greengrass likes to use the shaky camera work and rapid fire editing that I often find annoying, but he does it better than just about anyone else working right now. When The Bourne Ultimatum came out in 2007, it seemed like a good place to end the series – it brought the series to a fitting conclusion, and nothing more really needed to be done. But movie studios don’t like to leave a profitable franchise until they have wrung every last box office dollar out of it. So, after a five year layoff, the Bourne movies are back – but without Jason Bourne, and perhaps even worse news for the franchise, without Paul Greengrass. Instead of Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, the trained assassin with amnesia, we get Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross, who knows exactly who he is, but is still on the run because Bourne has become a news story, and the government needs to clean up the mess he has created – including the program that Bourne led to, which Cross was a part of. And instead of a great action filmmaker like Greengrass, this film was co-written and directed by Tony Gilroy (who has writing credits on the previous three Bourne movies), whose only directorial credits are the brilliant legal drama Michael Clayton, and the comedic heist picture Duplicity. And yet, while I know that this movie is in many ways just a cynical attempt to make money off a franchise that has reached its natural conclusion, and while I will admit that the film is not nearly as good as any of the previous Bourne movies, I do have to admit that The Bourne Legacy works. This movie is much better than it really should be.

Much of the credit for the success of the movie is due to Jeremy Renner, who had big shoes to fill in the lead role, and does an excellent job. Renner has a natural believability about him – most likely forged in his years as a character actor before The Hurt Locker made him a star. Renner has to perform physical feats that are, logically, impossible, but because he has an effortless charm, and look of fierce determination, you do believe him. You also like him, which isn’t an easy thing considering we know that he voluntarily turned himself into a killing machine. Still, you root for him, which is essential in this movie. He is ably supported by the rest of the cast. Rachel Weisz, an actress I run hot and cold on, hits the right notes as a doctor who finds herself in way over her head, and having to depend on Aaron for her life. And Edward Norton and Stacy Keach are well cast as the two head government honchos bad guys because both are capable of appearing to be really bad guys – and that’s all that is required of them. And that great TV baddie Zeljko Ivanek may have a small role, but it is unforgettable, as he goes on one of those infamous work place shooting sprees, which is simply chilling – even more so given recent events.

And it also must be said that Gilroy acquits himself quite nicely behind the camera. On the basis of his first three films, it doesn’t appear like he has much of an original style behind the camera, but he does quite ably steal from Greengrass – using a little less shaky camera work and rapid fire editing, but still incorporating enough of it that this movie certainly feels like a member of the same series as the previous films.

The Bourne Legacy cannot possibly have the same impact as the previous films in the Bourne series, simply because this is now the fourth time were seeing it. And yet, as a film unto itself, it works quite nicely. It is exciting, well-acted and not quite as dumb as most action movies. It also has one of the best car chases (ok, motorcycle chase) in recent memory. No, The Bourne Legacy is not a great film, but it is an entertaining action film.

Movie Review: Duplicity

Duplicity ***
Directed By: Tony Gilroy.
Written By: Tony Gilroy.
Starring: Clive Owen (Ray Koval), Julia Roberts (Claire Stenwick), Tom Wilkinson (Howard Tully), Paul Giamatti (Richard Garsik), David Shumbris (Turtleneck), Rick Worthy (Dale Raimes), Oleg Shtefanko (Boris Fetyov), Denis O'Hare (Duke Monahan), Kathleen Chalfant (Pam Frailes), Khan Baykal (Dinesh Patel), Thomas McCarthy (Jeff Bauer), Wayne Duvall (Ned Guston).

Duplicity is one of those movies where you cannot trust for a second what you see on the screen. The movie is an intricate puzzle, only gradually doling out all the pieces of information needed to fill in the gaps. These types of movies often infuriate me – as I do not feel that they really play fair with the audience – but this one gets by on the talent and charm of its stars, and the skill of the screenplay and direction by Tony Gilroy. This isn’t going to win any awards, like Gilroy’s debut film Michael Clayton did, but it is a solid entertainer. Sometimes, that’s enough.

The movie is about two spies with a history. When we first meet Ray Koval (Clive Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts), he is a MI-6 agent, and she is a CIA-agent who both happen to be in Dubai. They meet, they flirt, they have sex, she drugs him and steals the information he is carrying. We then flash forward several years. They are employed by rival mega-corporations in their internal intelligence division. She is a mole inside one of them, and he is assigned to be her handler. Sparks fly. It seems like the company headed by CEO Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) has just made a major breakthrough of some kind on a product that will revolution something. The company headed by Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti), wants to know what this product is. This is where Claire and Ray come in. She’s on the insider of Tully’s corporation, and he on Garsik’s. If she can feed the correct information to him, they can all get rich. Of course, there are twists and turns in the plot, and we are never 100% sure on who we can trust. We suspect that half of the people could be double agents, or triple agents, and everything we see and hear may just be all part of a game. Then again, that’s half the fun.

Duplicity takes place in a similar world as Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, although the two films couldn’t be more different in terms of style and tone. Whereas Michael Clayton looked at the rotting cesspool of corporate greed, and created a central character that may come to represent the feelings of many Americans as the financial crisis worsens, Duplicity plays it all as a game. Perhaps the film would be a little more fun without the current crisis – where we have come to realize that many corporations really do play it all as a game, and the losers are always us.

But you can’t really fault the movie for that. It is looking to be an escapist caper film, and at that it works wonderfully well – mainly because of the charm and skill of the two leads. It’s nice to see Clive Owen loosen up again, and allow himself to be more cheerful and charming. This is the first time in I don’t know how long I have seen the man genuinely smile in a movie – and he’s got a killer smile. If the character was an American, George Clooney would undoubtedly play him, and I can think of no higher complement than to say Owen matches Clooney’s immense charm and presence. He fits into this world effortlessly. This is also the exact type of role that Roberts excels at. She struggles when she has to play a “realistic” character, but few are as skilled as she is at the “movie star” type role she has here. Everything about her screams movie star, and she plays this role to pretty much perfection. In fact, I can’t think of anyone who could have done it better. They are backed by a skilled supporting cast – especially both Wilkinson and Giamatti who are not afraid to go wildly over the top and do so with great flourish here. True, nothing in this movie comes remotely close to reality, but you hardly care when you are having so much fun.

The movie would have been better had its third act been better structured. Once we realize what the new product is, we are inevitably disappointed. The product itself should have been kept as a classic McGuffian (the term Hitchcock used to describe something that was vitally important to the plot, that didn’t really matter. Essentially, it doesn’t matter what the product is, it just matters that everyone in the movie wanted it). The film regains a little bit of its magic in the final scene, which is expertly handled, but by then the movie has run out of a little steam. The movie is only 125 minutes long, but it feels longer. Still, it’s hard to complain too much about a movie that gives you as much fun as this one does. No, it’s not a modern classic like Michael Clayton. But it’s still better than most of the other movies out there right now.