The Franchise is Back

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2007)

CASINO ROYALE does what no Bond movie has ever done before and it's a simple thing: it goes back to the basics and details the creation of Bond per se with its fits and starts as Bond has to fight against his own worst enemy -- his own ego -- before he can successfully complete any mission involving spies, counterspies, terrorists, and the like. A fantastic opening montage that intercuts the present, filmed in the style of noir, with a flashback killing, filmed in gritty, scratchy images, and Bond has pocketed two killings in less time than you can catch your breath, earning his double agent status. Then he's off on a chase through the African landscape as he tries to intercept a runner carrying a terrorist device linked to a code in a cell phone ("ellipsis") that ends rather badly and, due to the fact that now we're in the age of the Net, immediately disseminated, a thing that displeases M (Judi Dench) who knows Bond isn't ready to assume his role -- he's too much of a hothead. However, there is still the issue of his pending mission, and this takes Bond into the (customary) exotic locales and closer to the man he is supposed to beat in an all-stakes card game -- Le Chiffre. In fact, nearly the entire movie is spent at Casino Royale and is virtually devoid of exaggerated action. All of the tension relies in the fact that Le Chiffre and Bond are pitted against each other and within them there are other double agents and possible betrayers who are out for their own material gain and personal reasons.
So other than the African chase scene and one involving Bond trying to stop a suicide bomber from hitting a plane -- itself, again, keeping up with the times -- CASINO ROYALE is actually quite somber with snippets here and there of humor, and a third act that goes somewhere completely different and shows Bond in a more human light -- and explains his later treatment of the women he's crossed. There is a dry element to the scenes of violence, however, that CASINO ROYALE presents -- it's less cartoonish, for one, which is a good thing. It also has a lot in common with the type of violence shown in Melville's ARMY OF SHADOWS -- sparse, to the point, without relying on the swell of music and the extended scenes where the bad guy just won't die and Bond can seemingly go on forever. This Bond will kill at the drop of a hat; he's totally unpredictable, he can take quite a beating himself (in a scene where he gets tortured in a man's most vulnerable place) and make it look like he's enjoying it. Daniel Craig, with his cold yet sad blue eyes and steely, chiseled looks (and impossibly honed physique) makes him look dangerous yet compassionate at the same time, still not sure of what his role is supposed to be about. He's, quite frankly, what Bond is meant to be.
Now, there's the issue of how relevant the character is in a time when we have the plethora of terrorist events taking place all around us. I think so. The traditional Bond fought battles over nearly inhuman villains and that took 90 % of the story's credibility -- you knew you were watching "another Bond flick" and that was a big whoop, wasn't it? This time, none of the identifiable elements of "the Bond movie" are present. It's as if this is the first time Bond as an agent was introduced to us and none of the previous stories ever took place. Bond himself speaks his most well-known line at the end of the movie, which is nearly 150 minutes long. The Bond women aren't glamazons -- Eva Green, while exceedingly beautiful, is accessible: earthy but sophisticated, and Caterina Murino has the dark looks but registers little and she is out after one scene. Le Chiffre is less a monster, more a corrupt politician. This is quite a gritty movie, using CASINO ROYALE from 1967 as a template to re-configure it completely and make it into a powerhouse action-drama-romance adventure for our times, where instead of the deadly machines seen in GOLDFINGER (and the rest of them, each successive one more lurid than the previous) we have cell phones running terrorist rings and implants that allow 24 hour monitoring of Bond's whereabouts -- relevant to our times. This is, simply put, Bond for the new millennium.