2006: Casino Royale

Casino Royale (2006, Campbell) 6/10

In 2002, two completely different "spy" films emerged on the silver screen. The first was The Bourne Identity: a hip and edgy remake of an earlier made-for-TV adaptation of Robert Ludlum's tale of an amnesiac spy who tries to piece together the fragmented jigsaw of his past. Directed by Go helsman Doug Liman, this tightly wound thriller utilized Liman's indie cred, Matt Damon's box-office appeal along with a critically acclaimed cast who were mostly well known in smaller circles such as German actress Franka Potente, veteran Chris Cooper and a then mostly unknown English actor in Clive Owen. Coupled with Liman's efficient low-key direction, the film became a welcome antithesis to 2002's entry to the ever-ballooning Bond series entitled Die Another Day.

Whereas The Bourne Identity and its successor The Bourne Supremacy kept the plot and storyline within a degree of gritty realism; the overblown gadgetry, superfluous storylines and imbecilic charm of Die Another Day allowed for the series based on Ian Fleming's novels to continue to slide on the slippery slope it had been descending upon since Sean Connery left the series for the first time in the late Sixties. Then again this was a shift which the Bond producers should have caught onto due to the triumphant returns of the Austin Powers series a few years earlier, or even more so in the original farcical interpretation of Casino Royale starring David Niven. Yet, after the success of the Bourne series, Bond producer Barbara Broccoli proclaimed the future Bond films would be different: harking back to the abrasive tone of Ian Fleming's novels in both character and tone. Despite their minimalist inclusion in Fleming's novels, Q and Moneypenny were canned, as were invisible cars, pop star cameos, Pierce Brosnan and campy over-the-top villains who destined to take over the world.

Thus much to the chagrin of hardcore Bond fans, the production staff decided to start from scratch. Casino Royale. the first novel in Fleming's Cold War series was to be the starting point with the background for future Bond films taking place in a world of terrorist insurgencies rather than Cold War conflcts. Rugged northern English actor Daniel Craig was installed as Bond to add spite, bitterness, vulnerability, as well as cold calculation into the Bond character; Crash director and screenwriter Paul Haggis was brought into to re-write the original script to flesh out the story and give Bond the type of humanism he represents in the novels; and there was even talk from Quentin Tarantino that he would like to helm the picture. But instead for all the talk of change from the producers there has been little to shake up the Bond films. While the Bourne series continually rotates with indie directors behind the camera, Broccoli played it safe by re-hiring Goldeneye director Martin Campbell. The results show.

This is the third filmed version of Ian Fleming's debut novel in the Bond series. The first was a live television adaptation starring Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre, while the second was the disasterous spoof version starring David Niven and Woody Allen. Updated from its Cold War origins, the story has newly assigned double-O agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) taking on his first major assignment by tracking a group of terrorists who are linked to a man named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen): a cowardly terrorist banker who has lost his clients funds in the stock market and now aims to win them back by entering a high-stakes game of poker at a casino in the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro. After followng Le Chiffre's trail, Bond is assigned by M (Judi Dench) as the service's best poker player to take on Le Chiffre in order to bankrupt the man and secure an end to his role as a terrorist operative.


Despite a wonderfully executed granular opening sequence showing Bond's double O credentials, Campbell and the film's initial screenwriters allow the film to fall back into the same excessive traps. Unlike the understated Bourne films, Casino Royale contiunes the trend in Bond films for fast exotic cars, fast exotic women, exotic destinations, explosions, trigger-happy gunplay and huges stretches of classic cities being destroyed with little or no retribution. Sure, Bond gets himself on a faux-BBC report for shooting an "unarmed man" in an African embassy, but he also manages to stop a proto-type of an airplane being destroyed in Miami from an armed terrorist, as well as detonating a waterfront property in Venice with little or no complications. Although the [i]coup de grace[/i] in filtering out the reality of this piece is when Bond manages to resuccitate himself with a pocket defibrillator in his Aston Martin and then immediately goes back to playing Texas Hold' Em.

Although the film is a marked improvement on the abbhorent Die Another Day, there is too much fat and not enough lean precision in Casino Royale: a fact demonstrated by its running time that stretches to almost two and a half hours. But the film's length is not the problem. Campbell at least does a good job at keeping it flowing, dark and filled with cynical humour. Unlike Fleming's novels or Bond's rivals however, there is little emphasis on flowing minimalist decor: too much fine dining, caviar and gadgets still remain. Daniel Craig adds a second dimension to the character that has been sorely missing for decades, but even he is stifled in a project that lacks the intelligence of the Ludlum adaptations. As is the supporting cast, which is one of the better ensembles in recent Bond films. One minute Judi Dench treats Bond's misbehaviour like a scolding aunt, the next like worrying and doting mother. Both Kingdom of Heaven starlet Eva Green and Broken Flowers sideman Jeffrey Wright are wastefully used and compressed in their roles as Bond girl Vesper Lynd and CIA operative Felix Leiter respectively. Given Wright's carefully crafted performance in Broken Flowers it is almost embarassing to see him use "brother" at the end of every sentence. Caterino Murino simply stands around as chauvinist eye candy, while Simon Abkarian as the mysterious Dimitrios is simply another cog in the wheel of the terrorist organization Ellipsis. Even Mads Mikkelsen's portrayal of terrorist banker Le Chiffre, although again an improvement and a more fuller villain than in previous Bond films, still seems stuck in hyperbole and melodramatic swathes of camp.


When Casino Royale does work it is mostly in its more subtle elements: a less than cool Bond replying to a barman "Do I look like a give a damn?" when being asked about whether he wants his martini shaken or stirred; his sneering of Oxbridge conventions; sitting in a shower comforting a distraught Lynd; the fear on Bond's face at being tortured or the first time we see Bond driving is in a rather less than spectacular Ford Mondeo. It is in these rejections of the codified Bond template that Campbell and Haggis have injected more fragile realism into the character: a welcome departure from the "one-emotion" stylings of Roger Moore, which were made famous in a Clash B-side. Yet, despite Bond girl Vesper Lynd gaining more insight and screen time, there is little to suggest that she is a welcome addition beyond the bedroom. Disappointingly the Bond films still remain in their uber-mensch, sexist positions despite reviews and proclaimations by the production staff to the contrary.

Only sparingly is Eva Green allowed to provide the type of modern and nuanced female foil to the male protagonist in the Bond films as there has been in the Bourne films. While Eva Green has an accrued richness to her part and Halle Berry had a feistiness, there still lacks a gender equalization in MI:6, which will only be aided by the inclusion of more intutiive female characters in the next Bond films. Similarly racial stereotypes abound, although not at the now embarassing level that they did in Fleming's highly un-PC fiction. Perhaps if future additions to the series were to inject new blood in terms of writers and directors, then perhaps the series could become more grittier and even more toned down and realistic, while retaining its now conventional charms designed to please the vocal cinematic Bond purists. Otherwise, the films like Casino Royale will remain shaken, but not stirred.

* Casino Royale is now available through MGM Home Video

Copyright 2006 8 ½ Cinematheque.