Casino Royale has all that you can ask for in a James Bond movie except Q. Cars. Gadgets. Bond as sexy as he can get in Daniel Craig. A Bond girl in Eva Green, as genital-erecting as it can get. And a story that challenges you to keep up with the narrative and listen to the dialogue. How often a bond movie has served that purpose?
Heavier on character than action, this was the first book in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series, making it the ideal place to start the wheel spinning anew. That’s right, Casino Royale acts like as if the other Bond movies never existed. We’re back at square one, only the time is now, the fantasy is limited and the story is anchored in reality.
Q, with his gadgets and invisible cars, is nowhere to be seen. The tone is set when Bond orders a martini. "Shaken or stirred?" asks the bartender. Craig delivers the answer straight-up and bone-dry: "Do I look like I give a damn?"
And we’re off, with even the stock elements getting a fresh twist. Take the villain: He’s Le Chiffre(Mads Mikkelsen), a banker who launders money for terrorists. It’s a bit of a Dr. Evil parody that Le Chiffre cries tears of blood, but Mikkelsen, a star in his native Denmark, gives off a genuine eww vibe, especially when he tortures Bond with a testicle squeeze and pauses to leer at his naked body. Hero and villain go at it most excitingly over a poker table at Montenegro’s Casino Royale, where a test of character, not strength, will determine the eventual winner.
What about the Bond girls? The gorgeous Caterina Murino sizzles as Solange, a babe he takes back to his hotel room for a roll on the floor that causes serious rug burns. But it’s Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, a British treasury operative sent to stake Bond at the poker tables, who lifts her role to class-act status. Oscar winner Paul Haggis(Crash) contributes sly dialogue to a script that goes far beyond kiss-kiss/bang-bang. A scene in which Bond and Vesper attempt to guess each other’s past histories trumps its comic zing with romantic gravity.
It also helps that Craig is mixing it up with a first-rate cast, including Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, Giancarlo Giannini as MI6 contact Mathis, and most especially Judi Dench, back in the game as M, Bond’s boss. Dame Judi Dench put her power on hold in the lightweight Brosnan films, but with Craig she comes out blazing, knowing she’s found an actor who can give as good as he gets.
As the plot globe-trots from Prague, London, Miami and the Bahamas to an overblown climax in the canals of Venice, Casino Royale uncovers something unique in the 007 dossier: an unformed secret-agent man, lacking polish, vulnerable to violence and helplessly lost in love. Craig gives us James Bond in the fascinating act of inventing himself. This you do not want to miss.