The first Bond movie I truly enjoyed

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2006)

I've never really been much of a Bond fan. I'm indifferent to the older Connery-Moore films which to me feel laughably dated and while I thought that "Goldeneye" was kinda fun, the joyless and robotic "Tomorrow Never Dies" pretty much killed off any interest I had in Brosnan films. When Daniel Craig was announced as the new Bond, I sniggered about Blond, James Blond and had zero interest in seeing "Casino Royale". Then all sorts of rave reviews came pouring in and then I saw the trailer with Bond looking all ferocious and intense as heck (ok, and incredibly attractive too but I won't go into all that girly stuff right now).
I'll start off with the bad. There's a product placement moment concerning Bond's watch soooo blatant it makes one cringe. Also, the movie does run out of steam somewhat near the end. I enjoy a tragically doomed romance and collapsing Venetian buildings as much as anyone else, but there's just a very slight anti-climatic feel about it all.
The good bits? Pretty much everything else, with Daniel Craig easily being the best thing about the movie and, in retrospect, a stroke of casting genius. His Bond is a startling departure from the familiar, "classical" Bond type: blond, blue-eyed, with features that are striking and strong rather than handsome, shorter and more muscular. He's also totally convincing as a mean killing machine and at times looks positively scary. But while Craig's Bond is physically intimidating and tough, he also comes off as a lot more vulnerable and human than any Bond before him, less a superhero than a man who's just damn good at taking punches and picking himself up again and again like an Energiser Bunny. He makes stupid arrogant mistakes, is actually affected by some of the killing he does, gets scratches and bleeds. Of course, this being the movie-land Bond manages to miraculously survive stuff that would kill off any person in real life, but there's unrealistic and then there's unrealistic - like the invisible car, :) I also liked the fact that rather being saturated with uber-gadgets the movie relies on relatively humdrum stuff like mobile phones and tracking device. Craig does a marvellous job at conveying a character whose brain is always ticking away and who is always scanning and assessing his environment. You can see why M would put up with his arrogance and ego because the guy really is good at what he does.
Oh, and did I mention that this new Bond is damn funny too? He doesn't drop one-liners and quips every five minutes, but instead has a very dry sense of humour and when the script does throw Craig a comic line to deliver he does it perfectly.
The bad guys are refreshingly low-key: no moustache-twirling, cat-loving maniacs eager to take over the world, just your garden variety terrorists and a guy who wants to make loads of money. Played by the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, the main villain of the piece, Le Chiffre, is a clammy, creepy, memorable character and a sadistic bastard to boot who also comes off weirdly human at some moments in the film. He never feels cartoonish despite the trademark "Bondian" touches like the impaired tear ducts that cause him to weep blood in the moments of stress. He's also got fantastic hero/villain chemistry with Craig's Bond, especially during the brutal and tense torture scene which perversely enough features the funniest line in the entire film.
Then of course there are the obligatory Bond girls. The sultry trophy wife and Le Chiffre's blond girlfriend are eye-candy for the guys, but Eva Green's Vesper Lynd is a far more substantial character. As much as I liked all the action stuff that happens in the first act, for me the movie really clicked into focus when Bond is off to the casino and meets Vesper. Green brings the sense of mystery and vulnerability to her character; she and Craig have the kind of wonderful romantic chemistry that is so often lacking in the so-called romantic movies nowadays, and their banter, particularly in the scene on the train where they "read" each other's characters, is sharp and funny. There's also a memorable tender moment when Bond consoles Vesper who's been shaken by witnessing the murder right in front of her eyes. Sure, anyone who is not lobotomised can guess the outcome of the love affair because dduh, Bond will never live happily ever after, and as I've said earlier the movie does drag a bit near the end. Even so, I enjoyed the romance bit and the movie would have been poorer without it.
Visually, the movie looks gorgeous with warm and inviting cinematography and the stunning European locations. I didn't really know what to think of the somewhat trippy animated opening credits at first but I grew to love their simplicity and elegance especially compared with the garish, cheap-looking CGI-fests of the few previous flicks.
So all in all, I've enjoyed this new incarnation of Bond a lot. My only hope now is that the film-makers don't chicken out and turn Bond into a cartoon again and give Daniel Craig the material he deserves.