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Casino Royale Review
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
He’s blond and blue-eyed. He’s got a body like a dock worker. And, at one point, he’s so flummoxed by his opponent he doesn’t care whether his martini is shaken or stirred. You may think you know James Bond after 20 films in the most famous movie franchise of all time; but, with “Casino Royale,” you will feel like you’re on a first date with an icon-in-the-making.
Daniel Craig, like Bond in Ian Fleming’s first novel, is out to prove himself. Craig doesn’t force a comparison or a sense of competition with any other Bond portrayal. With ease and confidence and without caricature, Craig embodies the classic elements of Bond; while revealing unexplored vulnerabilities.
With a façade of batwing ears, pugilist face and unruly hair, Bond projects animal magnetism but is still honing his innate savoir faire. Newly-minted as a double-O agent, Bond must prove himself as much to himself as to the British Secret Service and to M (Judi Dench) its irascible Head; who fears she may have promoted Bond too soon. M thinks ego and a blind eye to the big picture are to blame for Bond’s bombastic dispatch of a bomb maker.
The big picture is a “banker” to the world’s terrorists; a man who will do anything to ensure “a reasonable rate of return.” Ordered to cool his heels and “think about his future,” Bond picks up the banker’s trail and thwarts the diabolical plot he’s hatched to blow up an airliner to make a killing on the stock market. Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) regroups with a mega-high-stakes poker game at the glamorous Casino Royale in Montenegro. The buy-in is ten million dollars.
Bond’s stake in the game is delivered by Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a British Treasury agent who can take Bond down a peg or two while pegging him as a man from humble beginnings with a chip on his shoulder.
Sensing their compatibility of spirit, Bond discovers how compatible they are in the face of danger; as Le Chiffre plays several deadly hands both at and away from the poker table.
How compatible Bond and Vesper are when it comes to loyalty and love is yet to be proven, as Le Chiffre threatens to prevail with one nefarious card up his sleeve.
Director Martin Campbell has delivered jaw-dropping action set-pieces that have jolted the franchise into can’t-wait-for-the-next installment life. And, Craig has delivered a multi-dimensional hero who promises can’t-wait-for new thrills. Columbia Pictures release, rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity.
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