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Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington star in Safe House.

Were Jason Bourne older, more bitter and of African-American descent, the franchise bearing his name might have looked like this.
   
Safe House, starring Denzel Washington, takes a lot of cues from the Bourne films, from the rough-edged, frenetic cinematography to a thin premise skillfully stretched beyond the point at which you’d expect it to snap. This is a much-better-than-expected thriller that succeeds thanks to style, execution and mood — and wisely not giving co-star Ryan Reynolds more dialogue than necessary.
   
The screenplay by David Guggenheim is essentially all chase, with Tobin Frost (Washington) acting as the MacGuffin that drives the plot forward. Frost is a near-legendary ex-CIA agent who went rogue years ago. After barely dodging an assassination attempt in Cape Town, he turns himself in to the American embassy.
   
Why he does this isn’t quite clear. It’s obvious he knows his former colleagues want what he knows (and who he’s shared it with) and he’s unsurprised when they waterboard him for it. The reason he chooses the fire over the frying pan falls by the wayside, however, as momentum takes over: a separate hit squad arrives for him, and it’s up to young, naïve CIA man Matt Weston (Reynolds) to keep both himself and Frost alive long enough to determine who’s after what.
   
Like director Paul Greengrass did with The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Daniel Espinosa gives the action a gritty, realistic feel — even when the action includes destructive shootouts and car chases carried out in broad daylight with seemingly no fear of impunity.
   
If the mayhem is to be this preposterous, it’s too bad Espinosa didn’t take the trouble to make such spectacle distinct, as in John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998), another film in which high-speed chases and gun battles never caught the authorities’ attention. Espinosa gets the job done, yes, but never as memorably as he might’ve.
   
By contrast, the always compelling Washington manages to craft a distinct character in the midst of the flying glass. Like Bourne, Frost is feared, dangerous and, at times, seemingly unstoppable — yet he’s also angrier and wearier from being on the run for too long, his soul tried too much.
   
It’s precisely that grim dimension that makes Safe House feel more substantial than the average spy action picture. The fight scenes, for instance, feel truly painful and, while thrilling, they also play as more grounded, more urgent and more exhausting. This is a line of work, we see, that breaks men who harbour decency.
   
The movie works so well from moment to moment, in fact, that a late twist in the story comes as a genuine surprise — something I can’t remember happening in any recent Hollywood thriller. For once, here’s a studio product that delivers.