This review makes the script sound promising. It seems to be credible; the reviewer complains at some point about the way Haggis describes the action scenes in long paragraphs, which seems like an odd detail to fabricate.
However, as welcome as the general atmosphere of the script seems to be, I think there are some unwelcome elements. Firstly, the plot point about Le Chiffre's supposed murder by Saddam Hussein and his 9/11-related insider trading, based as it is on the
urban legend about airline stock manipulation prior to 9/11, strike me as being in dubious taste.
Details like this may be somewhat useful in adding to a quasi-realistic
milieu for the story, but they could be seen as exploitative and distasteful in the American market, where feelings about the tragedy and the war are still fairly raw.
I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that assessment, because these details strikes me not as convincing but merely topical in a shallow way, like LTK's useless plot thread about Sanchez buying Stinger missiles from the Nicaraguan
contras. Ooh, Le Chiffre was handling Saddam's money and he knew about September 11th in advance! He's
eeeeevil! I tend to think there are subtler ways to evoke a believable sense of the current terrorism-conscious atmosphere.
Also-and this may just be a consequence of reading the somewhat jumbled plot summary instead of the full script-but the dynamic between M and Bond seems largely nonsensical. In the course of the first act, Bond manages to unwittingly compromise Her Majesty's Government, chase leads entirely on his own with no consultation or oversight, and invade his boss' home. This is apparently an attempt to show Bond as headstrong and even a little reckless, but on the basis of the summary, M comes across as weak and irresponsible for giving Bond so much leeway, especially as she's not supposed to have any sense of his capabilities and personal boundaries (at least in OHMSS, DAD, or even LTK, a case can be made that M has a well-founded expectation that Bond won't screw up too badly when he "goes off the reservation", and that any actions he takes will be deniable). Apparently, she even feels she needs to kit him out with an electronic tracer like a parolee; can't she just suspend him (or, as would seem more likely, drum him out of SIS for his mistakes)?
These points aside, it's highly probable that the script (if this review even reflects the most current draft) will change somewhat before the film is finished, so my comments could be premature. On the whole, the script sounds lively and fairly clever.
