Tea, Milk in First

Rating: 5/10 (18 November 2008)

The problems start with the worst ever title of any Bond film. There was an Ian Fleming short story called "Quantum of Solace", but it bears no relation to this film. The film-makers probably just borrowed its title to avoid the effort of thinking up an original one. In a desperate attempt to forge some connection between the title and the film itself, the scriptwriters have bestowed the name "Quantum" on a SPECTRE-type criminal organisation who, it belatedly transpires, were also behind the events narrated in "Casino Royale".
SPECTRE, of course, was headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a role memorably interpreted by the likes of Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas and Charles Gray. Quantum, by contrast, is headed by a man who goes by the prosaically Anglo-Saxon name of Dominic Greene. (As he is played by the French actor Mathieu Amalric, they could at least have made him the more exotic-sounding Dominique Le Vert). Previous Bond villains had such grandiose ambitions as achieving world domination, starting World War III or wiping out most of the human race and then using the survivors to build a new civilisation. Greene's rather less ambitious plan is to fund a military coup in Bolivia in exchange for concessions from the new government which will allow Quantum to corner that country's water market. I won't try to explain the plot in any more detail, except to say that it is very complicated and often difficult to follow.
"Quantum of Solace" is unusual among Bond films in that it was deliberately made as a sequel to "Casino Royale"; in the past there has been little continuity between one Bond film and another, with each being made as a self-contained adventure. (Some of the films, however, such as "The Spy who Loved Me", did make reference to Bond's late wife Tracy, who was killed at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). In "Quantum of Solace" Bond's main motivation is grief at the death of his love Vesper Lynd, and desire for revenge.
Daniel Craig is, as he showed in "Casino Royale" and non-Bond films such as "Sylvia", a talented actor, and he again plays his part well here, but he receives little support except from the reliable Judi Dench as his boss "M", the one remaining link with the Brosnan era. (At 74, however, Dame Judi is getting a bit too old for the role; time for a change in the next episode?) Olga Kurylenko as the heroine Camille is adequate, but not much more. She is not one of the really memorable Bond girls, unlike, say Michelle Yeoh, Sophie Marceau or Halle Berry (to take three relatively recent examples). There is a good contribution from Gemma Arterton as a secondary heroine, but Amalric must be the most nondescript and least memorable Bond villain of all time.
Arterton's character does at least provide some sort of continuity with the rest of the series, both in her eccentric name (Strawberry Fields) and in the manner of her death, which recalls what happened to Shirley Eaton in "Goldfinger". In many other respects, however, there seems to be a deliberate attempt to break with the traditions of the Bond franchise. This is the first Bond film where there is no romance between Bond and the heroine; he is clearly too shaken up over Vesper to have eyes for either Camille or Strawberry. He no longer introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond", and no longer cares whether his Martinis are shaken or stirred. (In the next film he will probably give up drinking cocktails altogether; he will wander up to the bar and ask for a "tea, milk in first"). The famous James Bond theme has been relegated to the end of the film.
Some of these developments also featured in "Casino Royale", but "Quantum of Solace" goes further in its break with tradition. Humour is kept to a minimum, and the film no longer has the look of a Bond movie. Although our hero visits several foreign locations, such as Siena, Haiti, Austria and Bolivia, the film lacks the sort of glamorous exoticism we have come to associate with Bond. It has much more the feel of a "tough guy" action-adventure film such as "The Transporter" or the Jason Bourne franchise. (As with "Casino Royale", the film was not always shot in the countries in which it is ostensibly set; Panama stood in for Haiti and Chile for Bolivia). There is perhaps also an attempt at political satire; Greene is the head of a supposed environmental foundation called Green Planet, which is really a front for Quantum's criminal activities. The message is perhaps that those who profess concern for the environment are not always sincere.
I greatly admired Marc Forster's previous film "The Kite Runner", a moving human drama which was one of the best films of 2007. It was, however, about as different from a Bond film as one could imagine, and I did not feel that Forster was the best choice of director for "Quantum of Solace". As always with Bond, there are plenty of car chases and other action sequences, but these were not the best thing about the film. Forster's style of directing in these sequences was too hectic for my tastes, relying heavily on shaky hand-held cameras and excessively rapid cutting from one shot to the next.
I hate to say it, but the Bond franchise is in trouble again, only two years after it appeared to have been saved by "Casino Royale", the best Bond film since the Connery era. With its confusing plot and weak characterisation, Craig cannot save "Quantum of Solace" from being the weakest since "Licence to Kill". One can cheer Bond on as he fights to save the world; it is much more difficult to get excited about his fighting to save the principle of free competition in the Bolivian water supply industry. 5/10