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Casino Royale
opens with a spectacular chase scene where James Bond (Daniel Craig) makes some death-defying leaps only to end up with 007 killing the wrong person, a costly mistake magnified the next day in newspaper headlines. Bond, who has just received his license to kill status, gets a strong reprimand from M (Judy Dench), but goes on just the same to follow his nose, believing the man he just killed to be a bomb-maker. On his own, Bond does some sleuthing in the Bahamas and comes face to face with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a poker genius who finances terrorism not out of some ideology but for money. Bond smells Le Chiffre out to be a bluffer at the poker table and practically vows to beat Le Chiffre at Casino Royale, Le Chiffre's hangout in Montenegro. An accountant--the fragile, innocent Roman Catholic girl with a name to match, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green)--is assigned as Bond's accomplice. Bond is smitten by Vesper's purity, and so as not to further burden her conscience, he decides to resign from the service.
Although the film is based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale (2006)
is a far cry from Casino Royale (1967)
which was a forgettable spoof. The 1967 version, however, doesn't have the iconic Sean Connery, which is good because then there is no basis for comparing Craig with the iconic Connery, the
James Bond with whom no other James Bond player can compare. Remember Bond is supposed to be neophyte here, having just been issued his license. The story calls for
Craig's James Bond to be a different Bond, focusing on the person of the agent, not on the sophisticated and murderous gadgets his job affords him. He is as M says "a blunt
instrument", not quite at home in a job that pays him to kill; besides, he has yet to hone his instinct for smelling out fakes. As might be expected, any Bond film's success
would depend on who plays Bond, and Craig on his first outing as the British agent plays it marvelously well. Doing most of his stunts himself, Craig does in 30 minutes more
jumping and tumbling and bleeding than Roger Moore has ever done in his entire Bond career. Great, too, is the acting of Green as the vulnerable woman Bond falls for, and
Mikkelsen as the compleat poker player.
Bond movies offer amusement and entertainment, and while Casino Royale seems to make a
statement for love--when in a bind where he has to choose between his job and his woman, Bond singlemindedly chooses the woman--it is nonetheless amoral where human life is
concerned. But of course, one might say, it's a spy movie, and spies kill and are killed as part of the job. Sometimes they also fall in love, or pretend to, and
that's why a discerning mind is called for when viewing such movies. One shouldn't simply shrug a shoulder and say "C'est la vie!" Bond gadgetry and devil-may-care
lifestyle offer no more than an escape. Be aware, lest you get entrapped in an illusion from which there is no more escape.
(Date Reviewed: 24 November 2006)
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