Casino Royale. Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads
Mikkelsen, and Judi Dench star in a film written by Neal Purvis,
Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming,
and directed by Martin Campbell.
Reviewed by Josef Woodard
Does a tougher world demand a tougher Bond? Well, we’ve got one
in Daniel Craig, the latest actor to don the costumes and the
persona of Ian Fleming’s protagonist and a grittier model with less
fun and games than most of his predecessors. He’s lean, he’s mean,
and has a face like a grimmer version of Steve McQueen. He looks
good in a suit but is also subjected to the mortal abrasions of his
job, with more bloodied and battered flesh than the Bonds of
old.
updates the Sean Connery-era version from 1967, the familiar
elements are in place, plus some new bells and whistles and a newly
hardened attitude. As usual, the location scouting is extravagant.
Casino Royale includes a dizzyingly kinetic on-foot chase scene
through a construction site in Madagascar as well as choreographed
waves of sex and violence in Nassau, Bahamas. But there’s also a
cerebral set in the middle of the story, with an über-high-stakes
poker game at the lavish Casino Royale that simmers with
psychological tension.
On occasion, the new Bond spoofs the Bond brand, as when he’s
asked about his martini: “Shaken or stirred?” “I don’t give a
damn,” he replies. The new Bond doesn’t particularly give a damn
about much, except getting his man, dispensing unrelenting, cold
(and not simply cool) thug’s justice on a world of bad guys. Oh,
and love sneaks briefly into the mix, too, courtesy of the smart
and lovely Accountant-to-the-Crown character, played with
controlled flair by Eva Green.
With this gripping existential joy ride of a Bond film, we’re
yet again reminded that, more than any other serial phenom in film,
the Bond franchise just keeps on ticking. It ticks like a bomb, a
Swiss clock, or a libido with a lust for blood.