Casino Royale
by Catherine Lee

      Casino Royale was the first novel by Ian Fleming to introduce us to James Bond, and it is a happy fit that the movie franchise reached back to this first novel to introduce audiences to a new James Bond. Daniel Craig is the new James Bond, and he deserves the fresh start. He makes a great James Bond.  

      Like any long lived franchise, Bond attracts some fans who take their devotion a little too seriously. Even so, all the cyberspace whining that went on after Craig’s selection to be the next Bond – dopey drivel blond hair and tough looks being all wrong for Bond – seemed particularly goofy. Who could stir up any emotion for such a moribund character and franchise?  

      But Casino Royale makes both fresh again. Craig does more than just breathe life into this tired old character. The whining about him has stopped and turned to praise. Most critics and fans have already moved him up to “the best Bond – except for Sean Connery.”  

      Connery’s Bond isn’t sacred to me (perhaps because I’m not a baby-boomer man) so for me I can say already that Craig is my favorite Bond. I’ve read a slew of reviews of Casino Royale, and male reviewers use words like “magnetism,” “strapping,” “chiseled” and “muscular.” Even the women kind of dance around it. Though he’s scruffy and violent – which may make him not that attractive to some – the thing to say about Craig is that he is sexy. Not suave, not debonair, not tall and graceful, not programmed to charm, but sexy. He has bright blue eyes, a seductive voice and an attitude of mystery that give him a very manly man kind of charisma. 

      Casino Royale takes that sexiness and puts it to dangerous use, which just adds to the sexiness. The film opens with Bond making the two kills that earn him “Double O” status. The second kill is vintage Bond – bloodless, witty, smart and discreet. The first is messy, violent, very bloody, and it leaves James shaken and stirred, but he’s learning. 

      Casino Royale is a bloody and violent film. Normally, those are not qualities I like in a film, but Bond movies have become such bloodless affairs that we think of Bond as a guy who uses gadgets, utters smooth lines, thwarts crazy evil geniuses and seduces women. Bond is a killer licensed by the government. He gets back a real edge in Casino Royale, and that is refreshing. 

      What is good about Casino Royale is everything that gets back to basics. In place of gadgets are action sequences that get a little closer to real, if only a little. A great early set piece features Sebastien Foucan as the bomb making villain.  Foucan is a practitioner of parkour, a sport or dance or martial art – depending on your definition – devoted to physical agility and overcoming physical obstacles through movement. 

      The scene goes higher and higher and is nonsensical in that way. Why would you follow a guy up onto a crane where there is no possibility of escape? Why not wait for him to come down? But the chase that goes on is beautiful to watch, full of climbing, jumping and tumbling that is gorgeous and physical and humanly possible – more like the Bourne movies than the humanly impossible Mission Impossible variety of stunts and sequences. Even with things as simple as Bond's car spinning out of control, we get to see the car turn over and over and over and roll to a stop.  Metal crunching on pavement. Simple but effective.

      The villain’s motivation is simple too. Mads Mikkelsen plays Le Chiffre, a banker who will do anything for money, and when Bond thwarts an investment return predicated on a ghastly, but minor act of terrorism for profit his investors are murderously angry. Le Chiffre must win a very large game of poker to stay alive and keep financing the terrorists who have invested with him. Bond must beat him. Le Chiffre has a Bond-perfect scar over one eye that makes him cry blood occasionally. “Ol’ Leaky Eye” feels very right as an old school villain. 

      The other operatives are good as well. Giancarlo Giannini is a local fixer at the site of the poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Jeffrey Wright is especially good as the CIA undercover man. (I was hoping for a Han Solo-like return, I liked him so much. Didn’t happen though.)

      What’s not good about Casino Royale is the female side of the equation. Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, the British Treasury agent assigned to keep an eye on Bond as he bets the government’s money in the big game. Part of the problem is in the writing. She never really develops; she just changes. She dislikes Bond at first and later softens to him. There are under-the-surface things happening, but there is no interesting shading for her that could so easily be there. 

      Green is very pretty, but she is a wimp and a blank compared to Craig. She has less chemistry with Bond than M, but Judi Dench is as wonderful as ever, of course. As the movie develops, Green seems less and less up to being a match for James. There is no hot scene between these two. That he falls in love with this very pretty but not very sexy or interesting woman feels contrived, especially in the third act. 

      The third act is a problem. It suddenly feels like a completely different movie. Bond lets down all his defenses for Vesper in a way that doesn’t ring true. He’s a sharp guy gone all soft over a nobody. When doubt creeps into the affair, his remorse and regret evinces unconvincing self-disgust. (In Broadcast News Holly Hunter groans dismay at her compromised behavior with the words “over a guy!” with more harrowing emphasis.)

      But despite flaws, Casino Royale is a fun ride and a very welcome reinvention. More Daniel Craig as James Bond, please! Now that the Cold War has given way to a very bloody war, James Bond shouldn’t be an ironic playboy. I’m tired of hearing that “9/11 changed everything.” That idea has been used for dishonest opportunism too often, but 9/11 has now changed James Bond, and its all good. 

Catherine Lee is the executive director of Fort Wayne Cinema Center, the only independently operated movie theater in Fort Wayne, specializing in independent, foreign, documentary, specialty and classic films.

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