Bourne Ultimatum, and fingernails
I just saw “Bourne Ultimatum” again, maybe for the fifth time. I don’t know that the movie is actually that compelling, it is just better than other movies playing in the area - either I have seen the others, and don’t care to repeat the experience, or I am not interested in a first dose.
Anyway, Julia Stiles does a very good job in this one. Her terror-filled hostage-of-crazed-gunman roll in “Bourne Supremacy” was good, but the role was limiting. This time around I found her to be a wonderful addition to the story. She is especially powerful in the cafeteria, waiting at a table with Bourne, and again at the very end, listening to the news report of the missing David Webb.
One reason I returned to see Bourne Ultimatum again, was to watch Joan Allen (Pamela Landy role), and to verify - Nikki Parson’s fingernails. They are clipped short, with a near-natural clear-pink polish. Notice the closeup of her thumb as she fidgets at the cafeteria table. Not much nail, not dressed at all. Amazing.
And I think that is one of the things I find most attractive about both women lead roles. Yes, I understand we are seeing them in ‘work clothes’, so they won’t be dressed for a prom. But there is a intimacy, and availability more attractive than vulnerability there. These women don’t appear to be using their bodies primarily for manipulating sexual partners.
And that may be one of the attractions of the story.