Casino Royale
(2006)
review by Suicide Blonde

I’ve been a Bond girl (no, not a Bond GirlTM – don’t get all excited) for quite a long time now, but I’ll be the first to admit that the franchise has had its ups and downs. No one will argue that the Connery years were the peak, but after that things are subject to debate. I was never fond of the Roger Moore ones, except perhaps for For Your Eyes Only (I have a soft spot for A View to a Kill, but that’s just because of Christopher Walken and Grace Jones). I never saw George Lazenby’s effort. Timothy Dalton remains a severely underrated Bond, though License to Kill hasn’t held up as well as I’d have liked it to. Pierce Brosnan started out strong with Goldeneye, but attrition quickly set in. The franchise was in trouble with the muddled, overlong The World is Not Enough and I never even bothered to see the movie after that.

Thankfully, the franchise has gotten not just a new person to play Bond, but a fresh take on the character and the story. The result is one of the best Bond movies ever, which brings joy not just to this Bond girl but should please anyone who loves an exciting time at the cinema.

Though set in today’s world of international terrorism rather than the Cold War, Casino Royale gives us a Bond who’s still new at the game – the pre-credits sequence sees him making the two on-the-job kills necessary to achieve “Double-O” status. Daniel Craig plays this new Bond, and the casting could not have been more perfect. Craig’s craggy face, tough body, and cold blue eyes are well-suited to a Bond who’s still something of a “blunt instrument”.  One of the first things we see him do is create an international incident that sends “M” into a rage. (For the first time Judi Dench comes across as Bond’s superior instead of someone for him to banter with.) And unlike Brosnan’s Bond, who often seemed truly comfortable only when wearing a tux, Craig’s Bond seems uncomfortable when he’s in a tux. He’s not picky about his martinis yet, either, replying, “Do I look like I give a damn?” when asked if it should be shaken or stirred.  Purists may kvetch, but this rough-around-the-edges Bond gives a new life to the character – and best of all, there’s room for Bond to actually have some character arc instead of being a well-dressed puppet.

Director Martin Campbell, who helmed the best of the Brosnan Bonds, Goldeneye, and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Roger Wade, and Paul Haggis have put together a well-paced, exciting movie with a plot that actually makes sense most of the time. Helping out are Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, one of the better Bond women to come along – she’s not just beautiful but intelligent, resourceful, and Bond’s equal in many ways – and a plausible villain, Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen. Le Chiffre doesn’t want world domination or all the gold in Fort Knox. He’s a banker to international terrorists who’s lost a good deal of money and is conducting a (very) high-stakes card game to raise the funds he needs for his clients. What follows doesn’t always go as you’d suspect – there are even some surprises, which I never thought to see in a Bond film. (There is also a nasty torture scene that will definitely have the men in the audience wincing.) There’s also a great deal of emotional resonance – another thing I never thought to see in a Bond film. The movie shows us how Bond came to be – and what he gained and lost along the way.

I won’t say more for fear of spoiling it. But this is a Bond movie for those who like Bond movies and those who don’t. It’s one of those movies that reminds you of how much fun movies can be.