Casino Royale

USA / UK / Germany / Czech Republic, 2006. Directed by Martin Campbell. Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian.

In this film the arrival of Daniel Craig as James Bond signals not only a change of actor in the lead role but also a complete reinvention of the Bond franchise. Gone is the jokey approach; there’s no Miss Moneypenny or Q, no gadgets, no long car chases and no master criminal about to take over the world from a secret hideaway full of countless minions to be summarily despatched by our hero in the final 20 minutes. And for this reinvention the producers have, appropriately enough, adapted the very first Bond novel by Ian Fleming so this really is a new beginning for 007 in every respect. Now, I have to admit that I haven’t taken a great deal of interest in the Bond films over the years – after the early Sean Connery ones they became little more than glossy spectacle, all style and minimal content. With this film being heralded as a new approach I was keen to see what they’d do.

I’m not sure the plot was any more important than the earlier glossy movies – though it’s a complicated affair, centred around Bond playing a long, high-stakes poker game with, amongst others, Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen), a banker to terrorist groups throughout the world who is himself at risk from his customers. What I found more interesting was the redefining of Bond himself as a ruthless but fallible hero. This Bond bleeds when he’s beaten up and screams when he’s stripped and tortured. Craig plays the role as a combination of toughness and vulnerability and we have a sense of a complex psychology working beneath the brutal exterior. The pace is fast-moving and the action gripping throughout, although I felt a couple of the set pieces went on just a little too long. But the final shoot-out in a building in Venice undergoing renovation made for an exciting climax. The acting is polished without being remarkable, and Eva Green performs well as Bond’s lover Vesper, but it’s Daniel Craig’s film and he carries the mantle well. James Bond has now truly arrived in the twenty-first century.