Worth Seeing...Twice

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2006)

Martin Campbell's interpretation of James Bond, beginning his career as a "Double O" agent, is more than smart, stylish, and action-packed (although it is all of these). It is also compelling. It is the first Bond film since the Sean Connery era in which one finds oneself more interested in watching Bond than his female companions.
This is due in no small part to Daniel Craig's intense, often unreadable James Bond. His on-screen presence is formidable, and his wonderfully angular features and muscular build make him fascinating to watch. Craig's nascent Bond is swift, decisive, and hard. His legendary finesse and signature dialogue have not yet evolved, providing long-time Bond fans with several "inside jokes." The script allows Bond the occasional quip, but the humor here is subtle, far from the clownish sight-gags and continual one-liners that characterized the Roger Moore era Bond. This Bond is grittier, less polished, and more believable.
Casino Royale's opening sequence, shot in black and white, is a beautiful set piece evincing the cold war, using the cold geometrical architecture of a modern Prague office building as a sort of moving Escher print that pulls the viewer into the story. Director Campbell makes use of film noir, high-speed action sequences, and sprawling vistas (ocean scenes, views of beaches, and European cities) to engender the feeling of a Bond film, while creating something altogether unique.
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade's screenplay is smart and involving. Absent are some time-honored, campy Bond film standards: M's secretary, Moneypenny, and her unrequited love for Bond; the obsequious Q and his lab full of improbable, high-tech gizmo's; and the gizmo's themselves (laser pens, guided-missile cigarettes, and so on). The film is all the stronger and more believable for their absence. Just enough of the plot is hinted at for the viewer to piece together clues, but nothing is given away. The story remains riveting up to the last second.
Judi Dench's M is reliably believable as Bond's terse mentor. Her nonverbal reactions convey volumes about what she is thinking and feeling. Mad Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre is cool, sophisticated, and oddly vulnerable; in short, the quintessential Bond nemesis. His relaxed demeanor as he tortures Bond is frightening. Giancarlo Giannini is a pleasure to watch as Bond's European contact, Mathis. Among the principal cast, only Eva Green disappoints as Bond's love interest, Vesper Lynd. Largely this is the fault of make-up and costume; the relatively attractive Green shows up at the big poker game supposedly dressed to kill, but looks more like a four year-old girl who's found mom's make-up and decided to have a go at it. Her lips are painted as red as red can be, and her eyes disappear under layers of eye shadow and mascara that oddly give her the appearance of having a couple of shiners. The next night she shows up in a slinky black lace get-up, which combined with the relentless eye shadow is somehow reminiscent of silent film star Vilma Banky. During frequent spats with Bond, she sits and scowls on a barstool, looking like nothing so much as a sulking high school prom queen whose date has abandoned her to chat up his football team mates. Green's attempts at smoldering looks come across as petulant frowns. Bond's unfortunate throw-away Solange (Caterina Murino) is much sexier and more womanly.
That minor point aside, the cast is solid, and the story complex and exciting. The action sequences are riveting, but happily avoid the overwhelming freneticism of other recent actioners (e.g., Mission Impossible III). I can't remember the last time I actually paid to see a movie in the theater two nights in a row. I did with this one.