|
Casino Royale
Reviewed By Rich Drees
In the past, the advertising for the soon-to-be-released latest
installment in the James Bond series would trumpet loudly, “Bond is
back!” But with the release of Casino Royale and the
assumption of Daniel Craig into the role of the famous British spy,
the franchise has taken the opportunity to reset things and give us
an adventure showing the forces that molded Bond into their top
agent during his early days with the British Secret Service. Bond
isn’t back so much as arriving and he certainly knows how to make an
entrance.
The movie
wastes absolutely no time in plunging audience into the action with
its pre-title sequence showing Bond making the two kills he needs to
make to qualify for his “Double 0” status. As we see Bond kill the
contact of a government official selling secrets, it is a brutal
affair, bone crunching and raw, signaling to the audience that this
in store for a much more realistic Bond film than has been seen in
recent years. Other real world elements creep into the story as it
unfolds. Bond is on the trail of a terrorist financing network
headed by a man named Le Chiffre who uses the funds entrusted to him
to make a personal fortune by playing the stock market with the
foreknowledge of when a terrorist attack will occur. However, after
Bond foils a plot to bomb the unveiling of a new jumbo jet liner, Le
Chiffre finds he has lost $100 million that he had invested in the
stock market hoping to turn a profit by selling short just before
the attack. In order to make up the amount before his terrorist
client kills him, Le Chiffre goes to Montenegro to compete in a
high-stakes poker game. Bond is assigned to enter the poker game and
stop Le Chiffre from winning. If he succeeds, Le Chiffre will be
undoubtedly be killed the terrorist for whom he was laundering money
and his financing network will be destroyed. But if Bond loses, a
potential $150 million dollars will go to finance international
terrorism.
Becoming the
sixth actor to take over the franchise’s lead role, Craig makes a
stunning debut, breaking the mold that previous Bonds were cast in.
His Bond is more brutish and thuggish than suave and sophisticated,
rough hewn and prone to brash, impulsive behavior. He has trouble
keeping his emotions in check and that sometimes affects his
judgment. He is clearly misogynistic, preferring to bed married
women as he sees them as "disposable pleasures." He is a
hard, brutal Bond for a hard, brutal world.
As the only
returning series actor, Dame Judy Dench manages to bring a new
dynamic to her interactions with Craig’s Bond as his boss M than she
did with previous Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. Whereas before she
played the head of Britain’s intelligence community as a woman who
needs to be tougher than the men whom she commands, Dench plays M
slightly softer and more tolerant and forgiving of Bond’s brash
actions. She is also allowed a moment of reflection at the end of
the film, concerned perhaps about the price Bond has had to pay as a
result of going on the mission she ordered him to take.
Bond girls have
long been a staple of the franchise, a bit of cinematic eye candy
for Bond to alternately bed and rescue from the villains clutches.
Here, though is the first time since 1969’s On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service that a Bond girl services more than just the
movie’s formulaic needs. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, the Treasury agent
assigned to oversee the $10 million entrusted to Bond as a stake to
gain entrance into the Casino Royale poker game, is smart and
sensual, but still vulnerable enough to be affected by the brutality
of Bond’s world. It’s easy to see why Bond would fall in love with
her and why he is devastated by the action within the third act of
the movie.
Bond films are
at their best when they mix real world scenarios with a dash of high
adventure. In updating author Ian Fleming’s nearly 50 year old
novel, the screenwriters have had to update a few details to account
for changes in global politics since the Cold War. The Soviet spy
bureau SMERSH has been changed to the terrorist organization that Le
Chiffre finds himself working for. The novel’s original exotic card
game of Baccarat has been changed to the more familiar Texas Hold `Em
poker. In fact this the only place where the script seems to
stumble, as it finds it necessary to have one of Bond’s associates
provide a running commentary to Vesper on the game as a means of
explaining the action.
Perhaps
energized by the series’ restart, the production staff has brought
their “A game” to the film. David Arnold’s score is lush and rich.
He creates several nice new themes that compliment the film,
especially considering that he only subtly hints at the traditional
“007 Theme” until the final moments of the film, where its familiar
strains signal the
end of the transformation Bond undergoes over the course of the
film. Cinematographer Phil Meheux’s work seems to conform to the
demands of the scene, whether they be the grainy black and white
photography of Bond’s first kill or the lush warm look of the
Bahamas or the use of handheld cameras to bring the audience into
close proximity of Bond’s hand-to-hand fights, revealing and perhaps
reveling in their brutality. This craftsmanship elevates Casino
Royale to a point where this is the first time in a long time
that a Bond movie can be judged not just in relationship to other
Bond movies but on its merits as a film itself. |
