Casino Royale
My pre-release worries for “Casino Royale”- the 21st official entry in the James Bond series- haven’t been so much about the choosing of Brit Daniel Craig as the latest 007 (though Clive Owen was always my first choice, Craig’s terrific work in “Layer Cake” and “Munich” assured me he’d make a top-flight Bond), but that director Martin Campbell chose composer David Arnold- responsible for the last three Bond scores- over his “Goldeneye” composer Eric Serra, whose work on Pierce Brosnan’s first 007-outing I greatly admired. Arnold’s techo-heavy approach to the material for “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The World is Not Enough,” and “Die Another Day” never really sat well with me (of course, those films upped the ante in high-tech gadgets in the series anyway), and while Serra utilized contemporary electronics in his score for “Goldeneye,” his score seemed to have an emotional, classical foundation that seemed lacking in Arnolds’s work for the series.
But, just as the anti-Craig movement seems to have been silences by his star-making turn as Bond, my reservations about Arnold were silenced when his score kicked into high gear. In an already crowded field, Arnold (whose score for “Independence Day” was unquestionably great) finally finesses that blending of lush orchestral writing with a more organic use of techno elements to come up with an action score that’s dramatically satisfying and exciting as Hell, without even having to rely on the iconic Bond theme of old (I’ll explain why in a minute). In a year with a great deal of diversity in film music, Arnold- who also co-wrote the opening titles song “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell (personally, the song’s better than the overproduced credits it plays over)- may have turned Bond into a Best Original Score Oscar sleeper.
Don’t expect much awards action for “Casino Royale” beyond the technical awards, however- not that it’ll need any to make a fortune at the box-office, though. The goal with “Royale”- based on Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel- for producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson (daughter and stepson, respectively, of original Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli) is to bring the series back to its’ story-driven roots before high-tech excess set in (particularly in the Brosnan films). And Campbell- bouncing back after last year’s lame “The Legend of Zorro”- sets the tone early on in the riveting opening sequence (shot in black-and-white) where a pre-double 0 Bond is a loose-cannon agent at MI6 on a mission that sets him up for his promotion. Immediately, you sense a down-and-dirty approach to the material set by the mood of Phil Meheux’s cinematography and master cutter Stuart Baird’s crisp editing. Just wait until you see the foot chase that follows, as our newly-minted 007 chases a lead- literally- into a Ugandan Embassy, piling up a body count and a lot of collateral damage along the way. M (Dame Judi Dench returns to the role as fiesty as ever) isn’t happy, but at least he leads MI6 to Le Chiffre (who is played by Denmark star Mads Mikkelsen, who turns the character into a genuinely scary villain, the best the series has had since “Goldeneye’s” Sean Bean), a banker whose speciality is laundering money for terrorists. After Bond stops one of Le Chiffre’s bankrolled terrorist plots- losing him millions of his client’s money- MI6 sees an opportunity to seize Le Chiffre before his less-than-pleased investors do by entering Bond in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro, where the take is more than enough to cover Le Chiffre’s losses. The plan is for Bond to win, forcing Le Chiffre into MI6 custody. But when do things ever go according to plan in Bond world?
Campbell and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis turn the Bond formula on its’ head in more ways than one. Gone are the innuendo-laden names of the Bond girls (of which “Royale” has two good ones- Caterina Murino is dead sexy as Solange, but Eva Green is dangerously smart- not to mention drop-to-the-floor gorgeous- as Vesper Lynd, who serves as Bond’s bankroll in the game and reluctant lover away from the poker table; she brings an element of deviousness to this “good” Bond girl) and the double entendres. Gone are the “shaken, not stirred” martinis (OK, these make a brief appearence). And gone is Q and his arsenel of gadgets (though MI6 does have some to get James out of some tight spots). This is Bond’s “origin story,” and it’s a doozy (even if it does go on a bit long at 140 minutes). And Craig is just the right actor to begin again with. It’s because he doesn’t fit the traditional Bond mold- begun with Sean Connery and continued with George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Brosnan- that he works so well in “Royale,” where Bond is still in the process of defining himself. By the end, when Monty Norman’s classic theme strikes up, and Craig utters that iconic introduction- “Bond…James Bond”- that you wonder what people were complaining about in the first place.
