I know I’m late, but I just finally saw the last of the Bourne movies this week, and I just had to comment on the casting of Albert Finney in The Bourne Ultimatum. Was it intentional to employ an actor that would be so confusing to viewers who would easily mistake him for Brian Cox, an actor who appeared in the first two films? It’s worth noting that our first look at Finney’s character is in a photograph, and so the ability to recognize him as a different actor than we’d previously seen in the series is less than if we were introduced to him in person.

As little as I figure out what purpose it serves, I think the lookalike casting had to have been a conscious decision. After all, who hasn’t mistaken the actors for one another at some point in time? When Cox first became a heavily used character actor, I mistook him for Finney. And according to a five-year-old Page Six write-up, Cox gets wrongly identified as Finney all the time (”But I’m much better looking,” he says). It wasn’t surprising that I have found countless reviews of The Bourne Ultimatum, as well as forum comments, that acknowledge the confusion regarding Finney’s appearance in the sequel. Unfortunately, I can’t find any discussion of the film that attempts to give a reason for the casting choice.

But that is fine. Whatever the reason for it, the connection is perhaps meant to be as undefined as the hinted at relationship between Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles). Aside from the characters’ difference in last names, and despite this theory having a lesser probability of truth, their relationship could be more familial than romantic (either way it seems equally improbable that she would be permitted to work within the same program or operation as he). And that got me to thinking, maybe all of the CIA-based characters can be viewed in terms of family. It may not be the most logical reading of the series, but it is an interesting and different way of looking at it.

Think of it as being like Fincher’s The Game or any other sort of trickery film in which nothing is as it seems. Just pretend that instead of being an amnesiac, rogue assassin, Jason Bourne is simply a lost, amnesiac family member, and that his mind is not only a blank slate but also deluded. Let’s say that Nicky is actually Bourne’s sister. Then we pretend Joan Allen is his mother, Finney is his father, Cox is his uncle, and so forth. Chris Cooper can be his step-dad, I don’t care, but it’s all fun, so we can label each of them as we prefer. Still, this reading of the film doesn’t give a good enough reason for the Finney/Cox confusion.

Anyway, you can make up your own interpretation, and it will probably be more logical than my own. Maybe there can be an explanation regarding Finney and Cox being twins or even the same person. I refuse to believe the casting was accidental, just as I’ve been refusing to believe Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul Dano’s claims that there was no original intention to make Dano’s There Will Be Blood characters appear to be the same person.

I welcome any other explanations, whether crazier (good luck) or saner than mine. Or feel free to tell me I’m wasting my time even thinking too much about The Bourne Ultimatum.