Strawberry Fields forever!

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2008)

Felt the film glossed over the threesome between Strawberry, James and his brother Basildon. I hope Agent Fields' guidance of Bond through his hotel suite stationery is elucidated in the DVD's deleted scenes, though I'd be willing to understudy with Gemma Arterton if Daniel Craig has moved on to other projects.
The film requires high visual intelligence and achieves its short running time by judicious compression of scenes. A clear example is Camille & James walking towards a Bolivian bus and the next scene showing them sat within as the bus pulls away. Mathis is impugned by Le Chiffre in the finale of Casino Royale leading to his interrogation and, in this film, his subsequent acquittal. So a guy whom we instinctively like, whom we are led to suspect, we joyously embrace again as an ally. The SIS(MI6) touchscreen computer scene requires rapid visual intake and I look forward to examining this in slow motion with the DVD release. The high resolution facial photography at the opera would suffer from the camera shaking, though image processing could compensate, provided the target was clearly identified. I would recommend a second viewing of this film before final decision on its merit. It courageously breaks new ground.