Outstanding new direction

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2007)

I freely admit that I was a naysayer on getting my initial gander at Daniel Craig as 007, but when I finally relented to see the new take on the series that essays James Bond's first mission as a 007 agent, I was more than pleasantly surprised and rank this as one of the very best in the series.
Bond: The blond Craig looks all wrong for the part. With his rugged, overly craggy looks, he seems more like a rugby player or a bouncer rather than the sophisticated icon of the Bond series. However, he has the correct forceful personality to sell the role. He has Connery's hard edge and dry humor, plus there is a surprising vulnerability to his approach as an "unpolished" Bond that makes him both more grounded and accessible than his predecessors. His off-kilter looks actually enhance the film's approach of an upstart rougher Bond. I am also hard-pressed to remember a prior Bond who could so memorably fill out a pair of tight speedos so nicely.
The villain: Mads Mikkelson's Le Chiffre is rather a weak villain. Despite his intense glares and a rather nasty torture sequence, he never truly seems too much of an obstacle to Bond. Oddly, whereas most Bond films rise and fall on the strength of their villains, Casino Royale becomes a rarity in that it succeeds admirably in spite of a forgettable villain.
The woman: Eva Green gets one of the best introduction lines in the series. She spends her first few moments sizing up Craig's Bond and cutting him down to size before entering into a refreshing back-and-forth banter for the remainder of the film. She is lovely and grounds her character so that not only does she seem believable, but you can nearly understand why Bond falls so passionately for her. It is one of the more intriguing female roles in the series.
The screenplay, which remains largely faithful to Ian Fleming's novel, is one of its strong points. The central action centers on a high stakes poker game in the title spot in Montenegro where Bond must prevent the villain from winning the pot to finance terrorism. While it seems a somewhat mundane conceit, the film is expertly paced - balanced well between slam-bang action sequences, headier dialog-driven moments and a rather affecting romance. Judi Dench is inexplicably back as M, but she provides a nice note of consistency in an otherwise completely new direction for the series. The locations are beautiful and the leads share a particularly strong chemistry which helps sell the final third. The black-and-white opening is eye-catching and the silhouettes of naked gyrating women have been abandoned in favor of an action motif. Chris Cornell's title song seems more grunge rock than "Bond", but is a new and distinct improvement over the last few "wailing diva" debacles. A grand start for Craig's Bond - I look forward to more.