Blurry Bourne

Based on information from an acquaintance (now known to be horribly inaccurate), my resolve not to be nauseated again flagged & I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. For those of you who are not familiar with the oft-told story, I love the Bourne saga, but the bizarre shakiness of the cinematography of Bourne Supremacy was migraine-inducing, and I swore not to see the third installment if Paul Greengrass was directing, a vow I wish I had kept.

Said acquaintance, who overheard a discussion I was having with someone about wanting to see it but not wanting to be ill, said he read an interview where Paul Greengrass said Bourne Ultimatum did not use what I refer to as "shaky cam." Armed with that information, the decision was made to go see it last night.

From the opening shot to the credits, the camera never stopped moving. The film was full of bizarre, shadowy closeups of people's faces; the frame shook unabated through calm conversations in restaurants, over breathtaking views of cities all over the world, as Jason Bourne rushed through streets, train stations, hallways, staircases, and a myriad of other typical action movie settings. At times ,I feared the cameraman was having Parkinsonian tremors, and no one on set noticed. As I watched dizzying camera shifts up buildings, I realized the shaky work was most likely due to a drunken cameraman allowed a drink rarely during shooting. The poor man must be going through DTs!

As in the last film, no where was this more noticeable than in the action sequences. It was nigh impossible to tell what was actually going on, for the screen was a gigantic blur. During several fight scenes, all you could see was blurs of motion with brief glimpses of what appeared to be limbs flailing about. While I did not leave the theater with a migraine, my head was numb and the pressure was building behind my eyes. I firmly believe the migraine was only avoided by averting my gaze during the worst of the blurry scenes, resulting in not seeing 15-20 minutes of the movie.

I will admit that we arrived to a full capacity theater and ended up sitting in the 4th row, which may have made the "shaky cam" phenomenon worse. Several times, I wondered if sitting further away from the screen makes it more bearable.

As for the plot, it was spot on! The pacing of the film was perfect. Matt Damon makes an excellent, sympathetic Bourne. David Strathairn does a skin crawling turn as the agent leading the hurt for Jason Bourne. The appearance of Julia Stiles does leave one wondering a bit, and that relationship is left unresolved.

I find it sad that I was unable to enjoy a movie that was really good due to the horrid cinematography.