The best Bond since From Russia With Love

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2007)

I confess I rather lost interest in Bond a short time after Roger Moore took over the franchise. I was familiar with Flemmings novels and the tone of Moore's Bond was so far removed from Flemings (or Connery's interpretation) I just couldn't bring myself to watch. When Dalton replaced Moore I had simply no interest in the genre and that remained true after Pierce Brosnan took over as Bond--I saw Brosnan in Die Another Day and had to admit he made an excellent James Bond. I think what turned me off to the whole genre was its apparent focus on silly chase scenes, near slapstick humor, and adolescent fantasies about scantily clad gorgeous females. Fast forward to Casino Royale...
Daniel Craig is without doubt the closest thing to an Ian Fleming Bond thus far. Sean Connery was very very good but Craig plays the character closer to the tone in Fleming's novels, where Bond is simply an accomplished cold-blooded assassin and a cold hearted bastard. Even before I saw the movie I figured Craig would be perfect for the roll.
The opening sequences set the tone for Bond's ruthlessness and the breakneck pace of the free running chase sequence is without doubt one of the best chases I've ever seen on film. The choice of an on foot chase rather than yet another mindless car chase was a brilliant decision. The man being chased by Bond is a professional free runner (an extreme sort) and one of the originators of the sport: This man did his own stunts and Daniel Craig did all of his including the high elevation efforts some 200 ft above the ground. Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) makes for a perfect 21st century Bong girl: She is stunning yet intelligent and cool under pressure; the perfect foil for Bond. These two have just enough sly humor to keep the film from getting too intense. All of the bad guys are perfectly cold blooded and ruthless especially Mads Mikklesen as Le Chiffre, and his beautifully sinister girlfriend Valenka (Ivana Milsevic). All of the supporting actors are equally excellent. In fact, it's hard to find a weakness in this movie but one does exist: This is a whole in the plot. I've watched the movie at four times and I simply cannot figure this out.
Bond and Lynd have escaped the clutches of Le Chiffre and his henchmen (and woman) and are sailing around the Mediterranean. They stop in Venice to resupply and Lynd appears to double cross Bond. Bond won an enormous amount of money at a high stakes poker game and this was supposed to be wired to the UK government who funded Bond's entrance into the game. Lynd withdraws the funds with the intent of giving it to the bad guys who retained the services of Le Chiffre. Bond gets wind of this and follows Lynd and interrupts the transaction. A fight ensues where Bond offs his adversaries but during the fracas, Lynd ends up seemingly trapped in an elevator. The building, located in Venice, is built on the water and Bond manages to begin a collapse of the structure into the water. Lynd's elevator ends up in the water. Bond had every intention of killing her for the double cross but ends up trying to set her free. Lynd has a guy which she uses to lock the elevator gate and the elevators sinks underwater with Bond still frantically trying to free the woman. It is clear that Lynd purposely took her own life, a point which the movie obscures and never clarifies. It turns out that she traded the money for the life of Bond and herself but that doesn't explain why she let herself drown. Based on previous Bond films, any woman who manages to obtain Bond's love has to die and Vesper Lynd was no exception; yet, it would have been nice to close this loose end...perhaps in the sequel.
Anyway, the loose plot end is a minor point. The movie is terrific but be forwarded: The tone of this Bond is completely different from any previous movie: Connery comes closest but Craig is the more ruthless. Anyone looking for an adolescent fantasy would do well to rent another DVD. This is an adult spy thriller intermixed with what is really a poigant love story. On the face of it, this mixture would seem improbable but Craig and Green make it work.