Casino Royale

I’ve been a fan of James Bond – books and movies – since the late 1960s, when a theatre in downtown Pittsburgh ran a triple bill of Dr. No, From Russia, With Love, and Goldfinger. What a way to spend a Saturday! A few months later they ran a double bill of Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, so in two afternoons I was able to see five of the six best Bond films. At this point, I also picked up the books and made my way through the entire series. Since then, I’ve gone to see every Bond film as they’ve come out. They never again really reached the level of those first five (well, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service did, though George Lazenby’s Bond wasn’t up to Connery’s), but by and large all have at least been watchable and some have been a lot of fun.

But what’s been missing in most of the Bond films since at least You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was an underlying seriousness. The gadgets, snide remarks, double entendres, and jokes dominated. Gone were the tight thrillers of the From Russia With Love and Goldfinger days, to be replaced by films that mostly built on the over-the-top scenes of You Only Live Twice (which managed it better because it balanced such scenes better with the story). Now, we have a new Bond and a new Bond movie, and I’m happy to say that it harkens back to the days of From Russia, With Love. Most of the gadgets are gone (given cell phones, PDAs, GPS systems, etc., Bond doesn’t need Q as much as he used to), as are most of the sillier jokes (think of the chases in Roger Moore’s early films). Instead, we have a more serious, more realistic (though not realistic in the John Le Carre sense) spy thriller, but one that keeps the essential spirit of the best of Bond.

The movie is a new beginning for Bond. It’s Bonds first major mission, and since it’s set in our time, my assumption is that this is a new series, not a sequel to all the previous films. Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues someone who is bankrolling terrorists and other nasties around the world. As part of this, he is sent by M (a great performance by Judi Dench, who has more of a role in the early parts of this film than she’s had in the other recent Bond films) to take part in a poker tournament to try to win money from Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre has been taking money from various criminals and investing it to make more, but he’s lost much of it (due to another exploit by Bond) and must win it back in poker. M feels that if Bond can beat him and take his money, Le Chiffre will have no choice but to seek asylum from the British in exchange for information, since his various clients will kill him if he admits to not having their money.

In the novel, they play baccarat rather than poker and I saw one reviewer complain about this change. Actually, I think it worked well. Poker has more overt strategy and more emphasis on reading your opponent – something Bond has to do with his opponents including Le Chiffre. The whole poker sequence in fact works quite well.

Craig does a great job as Bond, playing him as a more rounded, developed character than in any film since perhaps the early Connery films. His Bond is very good at his job, but also new at some parts of it, and makes mistakes. He puts on a tough exterior, but there are depths of feeling that haven’t yet been eroded away by his profession. As I mentioned early, Judi Dench is wonderful as M. Eva Green does a good job as Vesper, Bond’s love interest, and a somewhat complex character in her own right. Le Chiffre is played by Mads Mikkelsen, who seems to have done very little in English before this role. He is a creepy, if somewhat subdued villain, and works pretty well for this film.

As always, the setting are great, the stunts are fun to watch, and the action engaging. The soundtrack, but David Arnold, feels like imitation John Barry in many spots – which is a good thing. Over the years, the only truly great Bond music has been that created by Barry, and Arnold manages to capture the feel of Barry.

The films only weakness is that it is somewhat overlong. It’s about 2 hours and 20 minutes, and could have been 10-15 minutes shorter. Some of the end sequences go on for a bit too long, as does the big chase early in the film. But despite this, it’s quite a good film – not quite at Goldfinger level, but worthy of standing alongside the half-dozen or so best Bonds.