Don’t make Daniel Craig’s James Bond angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. And he’s angry for most of this, Craig’s third go at Bondage after the splendid Casino Royale and the disappointing Quantum Of Solace, which was hit by the writer’s strike.
What makes him angry is when Judi Dench’s M is under direct threat, but what makes him really angry is when the baddies target not only her but his precious Aston Martin DB5. Yes, the classic car from Sean Connery days makes a comeback, one of many nods to the past director Sam Mendes decides to insert.
What is refreshing in Skyfall is how out of shape Bond is, with hints that his position is becoming extinct. Dench’s M herself is under threat after a leaked file containing 50 NATO spies, and her insistence that Bond be called in puts her under real pressure from pompous politician Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). However, after a tense opening sequence and chase, Bond goes AWOL, apparently happier to soak up some rays, and plenty of booze, on an island.
The result is he’s slovenly, his aim has gone through shaky hands and his psychological profile is wayward to say the least. If he’s going to get the missing file back he is going to need some help.
Such is Mendes’ confidence with his material that he keeps his baddie off screen for a good hour of the film. When Javier Bardem does finally make an entrance it’s memorable in many ways, not least for the set an abandoned island from where he is planning to bring down the world. Bardem has to be the campest Bond villain yet, with awful bleached blond hair and a fondness for stroking faces, but underneath there is real threat and he is clearly relishing getting his false teeth into the role.
In many ways it’s a very straightforward, old-school film, with the classic plot madman wants to take over the world, Bond stops him, but as Albert Finney’s character says later on, Sometimes the old ways are the best’.
What is not a success is the film’s treatment of Berenice Marlohe’s Bond girl Severine. At first it appears she is going to be as strong as Eva Green’s Vesper sexy, sassy, independent, clever but her dialogue peters out after one speech and she ends up as a classic Bond victim. It’s a shame because she certainly makes an impact, first seen unveiling a priceless Modigliani painting to a millionaire before coolly witnessing his murder.
The other women in the story fare rather better. Naomie Harris is involved in the opening chase sequence and pops up at the end, suggesting she might have a far bigger, and more important, role to play in the future and not just as Bond’s eye candy. Dench is even better though. Without wanting to give away any plot spoilers, M is placed in peril and she and Bond have to stick together until the final showdown in Bond’s homestead yep, we’re back in bonnie Scotland.
Dench is simply superb strong, vulnerable, cool under pressure and desperately trying to keep her department together. It’s quite a physical performance for once, but laced with the same icy put-downs of Bond to keep him in his place. The script is, generally, free of silly one-liners, save for a really dud joke uttered by a passenger on the London Tube.
Perhaps Mendes’ greatest achievement is to hire his Revolutionary Road photographer, the great Roger Deakins. With such credits as No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James you might be forgiven for thinking Deakins was from the deep south, but actually he’s from Torquay. His very British sensibility, coupled with an exquisite eye, makes this arguably the best-looking Bond so far.
There’s a lot more to admire Wishaw’s understated Q with one lovely scene in the National Gallery, Rory Kinnear’s admirable Tanner, the great use of locations, the lively pace, but it all adds up to a real sense of threat and of an ageing Bond trying to keep pace with modern terrorism. As he says when given a gun and a radio: Not exactly Christmas is it’.
Overall verdict: After the misfire of Quantum Of Solace Bond is most definitely back, perhaps sadder, definitely older but with his jaw set against the modern world. While it never quite packs the punch of Casino Royale it’s still a cracking, rollicking addition to the franchise.
Reviewer: Mike Martin