We graduate to the Daniel Craig era in
CASINO ROYALE, in which Bond must go all-in in a high stakes poker match against a terrorist financier.
This is the one and only Bond movie that I have seen all the way through before this watch-through project. I saw this at some point a few years after it came out, easily over a decade ago - still remembered much of it although viewing it now in light of the previous 20 Bond movies proved quite illuminating.
Here's what's most illuminating - it is hard to overstate exactly how much Casino Royale breaks the Bond Movie Mold. The distance between Die Another Day and Casino Royale - while only 4 years on the calendar - feels like AGES, for so many different reasons. Where to begin. With Bond himself, probably - here's Daniel Craig playing a for-the-most-part quite stone-faced Bond as an early incarnation of himself - earning his 007 status in the cold open and references being made to this being the start of his career [this is...confusing in some respects. After 40 years of establishing that there both is and isn't straight continuity in the universe, and coming to terms with that, here we have a new Bond, early in his career - yet Judi Dench's same M that we had in the Pierce Brosnan era. It hurts my head if I think too much about it so, I try not to]. Anyway - Craig is definitely an action hero with a great physique and plays Bond pretty cold and smooth. It is interesting to me that (given his "turn" at the end of the movie") - he isn't more glib at times, but the character is what the character is, and even at worst it's hard to complain about Craig. He looks the part and handles it all with ease.
But let's just talk about the rest of the movie, the production. Die Another Day, the end of the Brosnan Era in 2002, still kept a lot of that 90s feel. What's astonishing to me is that here in 2006, Casino Royale feels like it could have come out this year. It's a four year leap that feels like 5 times that. I don't know what overhauls they made in the creative/production department, but THIS movie feels totally different from anything that's come before. If anything it's more action oriented (and that's saying something coming from the Dalton and Brosnan eras where big gun fights became more the norm). But not only do they get a new Bond and updated production values, they leave out quite a few standard elements - no Q, a real reduction in gadgetry, no opening dot-line-into-gun-barrel sequence (replaced entirely with a black-and-white cold open that recasts the gun barrel moment into an actual end-of-scene device - again - totally new!). This is not your father's (or your grandfather's Bond, in any way shape or form. And yet - it still is. Bond is still Bond. Keeping Judi Dench as M was probably vital for keeping some feel of continuity. I've said before that Bond movies are at their best when they are doing new things, and include casino scenes - that's this movie, in its entirety. It frankly amazes me that they were able to reinvent the wheel this much and nail it so squarely. It would have been very easy to alienate a lot of Bond-fans with just a few missteps, but somehow they avoid the pitfalls.
The story itself is fine and good - the motivations are somewhat background in favor of the action and tension - terrorist financing and lost money and high stakes winner-take-all poker games. It's great writing to put the entirety of the poker game as Act 2 - where Bond movies so often drag, this one paces the card game well (interspersed with some action) and is able to hold the tension marvelously throughout. Mikkelson's characterization of Le Chiffre is terrific, while concern over money seems considerably lower stakes than some villain plots, his persona makes up for any shortcomings.
I am going back and forth on the bonks for this movie. I cannot decide if he did or did not for sure bonk the red dress lady in Act 1. He certainly seduced her for information, but he makes the call for champagne and caviar for one and then immediately is shown going off to confront the dude at the body exhibit. I actually DON'T think he went all the way to making love with her. He certainly bonked Vesper later, so I'm just going to give him 1 with 1 this movie, for a total of 59 with 47.
Whew, that's a lot of words. It was great to revisit this movie. I'm most interested now in what the rest of the Craig Era looks like. We'll find out this week!
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