The departure of Pierce Brosnan and the introduction of Daniel Craig made it possible to begin anew. This film was based on Ian Fleming’s first novel about James Bond and the filmmakers want to give us a fresh vision of the superspy but not one that completely ignores what preceded it. It’s up to director Martin Campbell to do that, and he delivers, just like he did with Brosnan’s first Bond flick, GoldenEye (1995).
A banker with the ability to cry blood
Nr. 21 opens, unusually enough, not with Bond facing the barrel of a gun. The opening sequence is also in black-and-white. We see the young agent make his second kill, a move that elevates him to double-O status, even though M (Judi Dench) has her doubts about him. Bond’s first mission as 007 leads him on a terrorist hunt to Madagascar, a job that goes terribly wrong, but M soon puts him up against Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker with the ability to cry blood (no, really). Le Chiffre finances terrorism and MI6 hopes to cheat him out of roughly $115 million he intends to win in a poker game in Montenegro.
The problem? Should Bond fail, the British government will have directly sponsored terrorism. Along for the ride is Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), an accountant who supplies Bond with the government money for the game.
Craig makes you root for him
Agent 007 has always been a misogynist and this film tells us why. It gives us a peek into his dark soul and it feels like the happy days of Roger Moore are long gone. Is that a good thing? Yes, kind of. Gadgets and a sense of humor are mainstays of the Bond films, even the ones with Sean Connery, but sometimes there’s been too much of that. The tone here is pretty cold; this is a violent, tough film and no one embodies that clearer than Craig. In this introduction, he’s as humorless as Timothy Dalton in the 1980s, but Craig still makes you root for him. Something happens during the film and by the time he utters his famous introduction and the end credits begin to roll, you will have accepted him. Green and Mikkelsen are both fine as the girl and the bad guy, but don’t really bring anything new to these stereotypes.
There’s also a long sequence involving a tank truck that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The action sequences are not spectacular per se, but spectacularly well made. There’s a terrific scene where Bond chases a terrorist on foot; the bad guy is played by a famous free runner and the experience is exhilarating. There’s also a long sequence involving a tank truck that keeps you on the edge of your seat… Even the poker game has me interested, which is rare. Is it enough to excuse the fact that this is the longest Bond flick in history? Perhaps not.
This is a reinvention of Bond in the same vein as Christopher Nolan’s reimagining of Batman last year. I love it, but this kind of film is not why I fell in love with the James Bond series. The filmmakers need to move closer to the spirit of the other films in the next entry, but they must avoid the temptation of going too far. It’s a delicate balance.
Casino Royale 2006-U.S.-U.K.-Germany-Czech Republic. 144 min. Color-B/W. Widescreen. Directed by Martin Campbell. Screenplay: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis. Novel: Ian Fleming. Song: “You Know My Name” (performed by Chris Cornell). Cast: Daniel Craig (James Bond), Eva Green (Vesper Lynd), Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre), Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Jesper Christensen.
Trivia: The 1967 Bond spoof with the same title is a version of the Fleming novel, but bears very little resemblance to this film. Sam Worthington, Ewan McGregor and Henry Cavill were considered as 007; Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron as Vesper. Followed by Quantum of Solace (2008).
BAFTA: Best Sound.
Last word: “Bond in GoldenEye is pretty much a set character. To be honest, he’s another version of Connery and Connery was terrific. How many submarines can you blow up? How many control rooms are evaporating? The point about this story is that he’s much more human in this than the other ones. That’s going back to the basics of the book and that was sort of interesting for me.” (Campbell, MovieWeb)
