Matt Damon and Franka Potente

The action opens as Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea, barely alive, with bullets in his back and a Swiss bank account ID probe implanted on his person. When Jason comes to, he can't remember who he is, what he was doing and why he can read navigational charts, speak three languages and break a man's neck like a chicken bone in less time than it takes to say Coq Au Vin.

The boat docks and its captain gives Bourne, still clueless to his lethal identity, train fare to Zurich where the mysterious electronic bank ID opens a safety deposit box bulging with big pistols, six passports, and $4 million in assorted currencies. (Too bad Damon's last expatriate-bad boy, the Talented Mr. Ripley, didn't have similar support for his sociopathic European vacation. O-la-la, what a picture that would have been.)

Meanwhile, back at the bank, Bourne packs up his newfound loot and plans to make for Paris, the address that seems the most familiar from the passports in the deposit box. But he's quickly traced by Swiss police for attacking two officers who tried to arrest him for sleeping in a closed park the night before. A chase and cliffhanging escape through the American Embassy follows. Despite all the excitement, Jason still manages to make the acquaintance of Marie Kreutz (Franka "Run Lola Run" Potente), a displaced damsel in distress who takes Bourne up on his offer of $20,000 for a ride to Paris. And you thought the Concorde was expensive.

So off they motor towards the city of lights. Where the plot not only thickens, it darn near petrifies as Bourne discovers he is really a top-secret, U.S. government-trained assassin sent to France to eliminate Nykwana Wombosi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a former ally, now blackmailing the U.S. with threats of revealing American interventions in foreign affairs. Clearly not a good idea on Wombosi's part.

"I'm an assassin," Bourne finally reveals with more rancor than relief. Considering all his money and trouble with the police, perhaps Jason thought he was Robert Downey Jr. But there's little time to ponder alternate job options as he and Marie soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a high-tech international manhunt by both the French and American governments. "I want Bourne in a body bag by sundown," barks Ted Conklin, the head of Treadmill, Jason's special-operations unit back home. Actor Chris Cooper plays Conklin with much the same military mania he had in American Beauty.

What ensues for the final hour is a series of car chases, sniper-fire and boot-to-head combat, along with the obligatory smooch scene after Bourne bobs Marie's hair and washes a bit of the magenta out. Maybe in yet another former life Bourne was a spy for Sassoon as well.

And the more Jason learns about his life, the less he desires to know. "Everything I found out, I want to forget," he laments until finally confronting Conklin, and at last recalling what really happened aboard Wombosi's yacht. Then, of course, having to kick ass one last time before saying goodbye forever to his former self. Or get really injured trying.

Damon doesn't exactly dazzle, but isn't nearly as miscast as expected. Jason Bourne seems as surprised as anyone when the true nature of his character is gradually revealed. Even if you don't believe Secret Agent Matt could kill anything stronger than a six pack of Coors light, you still want go along for the ride and see what happens next. Credit is also due to Franka Potente, who acts with a natural ease and brings a welcome hint of humanity and even humor to the oft most mechanical action. Even more "on the run" as Marie than she was in Lola, at least Franka gets to drive part of the way this time.

Though hardly unforgettable, director Doug "Swingers" Liman has, with the help of Robert Ludlum's story and the acting of Damon and Potente, crafted an absorbing conspiracy thriller with action aplenty and an amnesia angle that sets the The Bourne Identity apart from the other players in the ol' spy game.