Forget everything you learnt over 20 films of 007 and do your best to suppress the thought of Judi Dench as the one link betwween the old Bond and the new.
Now you're ready for Casino Royale.
One review described the film as "tearing up the James Bond rulebook". Such a statement could not be more true. After an initial 45-odd minutes of large action set pieces (not including the superbly low-key pre-titles sequence, in which Bond dispenses of his first two victims), audiences are presented with Bond as envisaged by Ian Fleming. No doubt about it. This is - far and away - the closest we've had to Fleming's creation on-screen.
No, wait, scrap that. This is Fleming's creation on-screen.
It's a film where the little things count. The fact we see Bond messily dispatching of a baddie in a public toilet. That we see him getting dressed up in his tux. That we see him desperately washing the blood off of himself and his clothes after a particularly violent encounter with Le Chiffre's clients. Whilst Daniel Craig's superbly nuanced performance lends depth to the more crowd-pleasing action-driven sequences, the small touches are the ones that count. I need time to evaluate, but I may even go so far as to say that Craig's performance is the best in the series - ever! In short, he's brilliant.
Enough of Ian Fleming's novel is left intact (particularly, the extended card game), whilst the gruesome (edited) torture scene raised a collective gasp in the cinema (with the exception of the teenage girls behind me, who were excited at the prospect of seeing DC in the buff; proof that, contrary to The Mirror, not everyone thinks he's butt-ugly). The film is rounded out by a sinister performance from Mads Mikkelson, a rougher and more cynical turn from Dame Judi as M and a wonderful Eva Green as Bond's lover (easily the best Bond girl since Tracy). Her death is an emotional high point in the series.
Dialogue sparkles to the point that a deal of concrentration is required to truly absorb and appreciate the scenes as the play out. Everything Bond says could have easily come from the pen of Fleming.
It's not without its (very minor) flaws. The first hour is too action-heavy. In particular, the Miami airport scene is much too large-scale for such an early point in the film. A minor niggle, but having characters fire two empty pistols in the space of 15 minutes in two different scenes is a bit much. Yet whilst some are critical of the title song, the heavily-orchestrated version that appears over Danny Kleinman's startlingly-different main titles is incredibly catchy (particlarly as it re-appears throughout the film score).
The film wraps up with enough loose ends and an intriguing set-up to leave fans eagerly anicipating Bond 22.
Bond has been successfully reborn. And in doing so, the doors have been opened for so much potential in the films to come.
Excellent
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, Nov 15 2006 05:21 PM
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