If you take a life, do you know what you'll give?

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2013)

That's what it says in Chris Cornell's excellent Bond song to Casino Royale. And it's not only a fitting reference to Vesper's struggles, but also an accurate line to describe Daniel Craig's approach to the role as he takes over one of the most famous characters from literature and cinema. I'm always a bit skeptical when people say "It's a good film, but it is not really Bond anymore". Moore gave it a lighter approach, Dalton played the character in a way that is considered the closest to the one in the books. And Daniel Craig surely showed in his first film that he can carry the franchise as well. His approach is the taciturn one, the one that makes up for his sparing of words through his actions. And he really is a loose cannon, so much fun to watch. The prologue summarizes his anticipatory, yet very physical, performance impressively when he hunts down a disloyal MI6 member.
After the good-as-always intro with the aforementioned song (which is significant for the masculinity Craig brings as there had been exclusively female performers since Dalton's first film almost 20 years earlier), we see a solid chase scene with Bond chasing and killing a bomb-maker in Madagascar. After the usual scolding from M, he goes to the Bahamas and goes after a man named Dimitrios (while seducing his wife). At this point, I was rather slightly disappointed. This was certainly the weakest part of the film. But it's all way up from there. The terrorist attack about to happen at the airport is already pretty good and when Eva Green's Vesper Lynd enters the picture, the film gets pretty great and won't leave that territory anymore until the end. Already their first scene in the airplane showed how great their chemistry was analyzing each other psychologically in the most entertaining manner. Lots of banter there already. It's always nice to have a Bond girl with more substance than usual and that surely applies to Miss Lynd. The scene in the shower, her reaction when Bond fights the two African henchmen and of course the final scenes in Italy make her one of my favorite female performances in Bond movies. And just like Diana Rigg in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", she manages to melt Bond's heart as well more than Bond girls usually do. The scenes when he hears her being tortured in the room next to him is pretty sad and it's the only moment he is at least remotely in danger of telling the password, as is the ending as well. Eva Green isn't really a traditional beauty as many others before her were, but that's exactly what helps her here and, of course, visually she's still totally breathtaking, in the casino and pretty much every time she's on the screen. Anyway, everything from her introduction onwards is just a huge blast, which means the film already delivered in one of the key categories of what makes a good Bond movie.
Another criterion would be the main villain. Of course, we don't need to talk about Mads Mikkelsen's great range and here he brings it all to the character as well. Le Chiffre is as scary as he's mysterious and it helps that he's not some kind of super-villain, but also has his demons as he's in desperate need to get back the money he owes his investors. His struggles are always worth a watch, like when everybody at the table orders the same drink like Bond (nice reference to shaken/stirred from the older Bond movies by the way, just like the more obvious later on), and Bond is still the center of the room even if he just lost very many chips to Le Chiffre. Or of course his tears of blood, which were just a very smart inclusion. Or his look at Bond right after he drank the poisoned glass. So much focus to detail in terms of how he was written and portrayed, makes him a great character. Then there were all the supporting characters: M, Leiter, the other poker players, Mathis... who were all portrayed accurately even if they didn't really have that much to do.
The film is packed with great scenes: all the poker action (you don't need to be an expert to understand what's going on as Mathis keeps explaining to Lynd and the audience throughout), the defibrillator scene in the car, the torture scene, Mathis' arrest, retirement in Italy and many more. Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen make this film a mesmerizing watch. And the last shot and line at the ending was very well done too, a nice reference to the older movies, not only in how cool it is, but also in making audiences curious about Craig's second 007. With a better first half hour, this would probably have gotten a perfect score from me and be my favorite film of 2006. But this way, it still sits comfortably in my top5 of the year. Very much recommended.