Getting Back To Work

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2013)

The James Bond franchise celebrated its 50th anniversary with this hard-charging re-examination of the character and the world he inhabits, served up with fierce action scenes, amazingly exotic locales, and the welcome re-introduction of humor.
As Bond himself (Daniel Craig) puts it, his hobby is "resurrection," and as Craig invests himself more into the role, it seems like he is doing his job.
It's a strange movie in many ways. While other Bond films present us with an infallible hero, here we see him making a few mistakes. He fails the opening mission rather spectacularly, then goes to ground to perform some meaningless, unhappy sex and drinking games with scorpions to amuse jaded barflies. But MI6 is in even more serious trouble than usual, and as a battered M (Judi Dench) faces early retirement, an unshaven Bond returns to do what he can. Which we really sense this time may not be enough.
"You know we need you," says M, speaking for all of us.
"Well, I'm here," says Bond, looking none-too-happy about it.
It may be pointless to write a positive review in this forum; any nice words said about "Skyfall" tend to attract "unhelpful" votes like dead meat does flies. Maybe someone thinks enough negativity on IMDb will be enough to force Craig out and bring back Pierce Brosnan. Well, with all the millions of box office and new fans this Eon makeover has been getting, I can only echo one of Craig's many quips from this surprisingly amusing if dark film: "Good luck with that!"
If there has been a traditional backlash against the new Bonds, it surprises me. Sure, "Skyfall" plays with our expectations, but it does so by grounding Bond in the same sensibility of fallibility and fragility that Ian Fleming introduced in the Bond books. His Bond didn't enjoy his work, and in the later novels began to fall apart until he was a battered shell of his old self by the penultimate novel, "You Only Live Twice." Double-O work takes a toll, and Craig isn't the cocky video game avatar we may be expecting. His doggedness isn't always a plus; it weighed down the last movie, "Quantum Of Solace," rather heavily.
The screenwriters here, usual suspects Neil Purvis and Robert Wade along with new writer John Logan, still suffer from an inability to devise and develop a sensible plot. It starts terrifically, but the ending is seriously hobbled by an effort to give a major character a proper send-off, and there is also the magic maniac issue around our principal baddie, the renegade agent Silva (Javier Bardem), who just seems too held up by contrivance as the film enters its third, patchiest act.
But Bardem does a solid job with a difficult role, injecting his own humor and making the viewer question M's opportunism in quest of mission. The script does fine with sharp dialogue and character development, developing shadings and resonances you don't expect. A great example is the Bond Girl here, Bérénice Lim Marlohe, who plays up her character Severine's vulnerability in a way that surprises one used to just getting eye candy. Watching her try to bandy words with Bond at a bar, one sees in her eyes how shaky her situation is, another callback to Fleming. She wears her doom well.
As a film, "Skyfall" takes its time, a bit too much time in places, but manages to score as a series of invigorating setpieces in a way that give this film a rewatchability I find lacking in the other Craig Bonds, even the thematically stronger "Casino Royale." Director Sam Mendes makes his style points, but he's a fan and never forgets the mission here: Let the audience have some fun.
I had fun watching this, and think you will, too. It's a half-century milestone that suggests the series has more in the tank than even Craig's prior outings portended. He's had a great run, and it appears he won't be leaving with his dignity any time soon. Which is fine by me.