She plays a female analyst/handler and someone who it is inferred also had an undisclosed role earlier in Bourne's training the nature of which is not explicitly stated. Perhaps there was some previous degree of closeness which Bourne does not remember but which she does (in an earlier film she was identified as being trained in psychology and described the symptoms displayed by the several agents like Bourne noting that only he among them displayed amnesia). In any event I found her to be a quite credible specimen of a woman working in the intelligence field several of whom I have worked with during extensive periods of relatively stressful duty (none of which was film worthy material). The lost girlfriend was in contrast a civilian who had no knowlege of the ways of intelligence work and who would by comparison appear to be a warmer person. I suppose that the point is what Bourne finds attractive about them both, perhaps it is their trusting him throughout extremely adverse times and their willingness to help him acheive his aim of rediscovering his identity which is what I suspect.

Well, thanks for wmccomninel"s comment.....

The reviewer's comments regarding Stiles's acting reminded me of the various complaints I heard (years ago, admittedly, and all from gay, male friends) regarding Tom Hanks's acting in "Philadelphia". I repeatedly heard "He's so UNEMOTIONAL" or "He was like, so COLD!.....they only kissed once, and that was brief"", "It was so UNBELIEVABLE..."etcetera....

My unvaried response was "Well, what did you expect? He's playing an ambitious CORPORATE LAWYER! It's not exactly the sort of job that attracts touchy-feely types,... straight or gay....."

My guess is that Stiles is just fine.

Level Best as Ever,

David Terry

www.davidterryart.com

Ever since the first movie I've been rather surprised Julia Stiles merits mention. She's quite pretty and acts the part fine, but there's so little to her character in the first two films. In the first movie she's only in maybe two major scenes and during the climax, she stands there petrified while Bourne beats down her boss then kills the rest of her team. In the second film, she's a bit more involved, but still basically does nothing more than look serious and work hard, then occasionally acts scared and surprised.