Bonding Agent

Casino Royale. Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads
Mikkelsen, and Judi Dench star in a film written by Neal Purvis,
Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming,
and directed by Martin Campbell.

Reviewed by Josef Woodard

Does a tougher world demand a tougher Bond? Well, we’ve got one
in Daniel Craig, the latest actor to don the costumes and the
persona of Ian Fleming’s protagonist and a grittier model with less
fun and games than most of his predecessors. He’s lean, he’s mean,
and has a face like a grimmer version of Steve McQueen. He looks
good in a suit but is also subjected to the mortal abrasions of his
job, with more bloodied and battered flesh than the Bonds of
old.

In the new film, which revisits and
updates the Sean Connery-era version from 1967, the familiar
elements are in place, plus some new bells and whistles and a newly
hardened attitude. As usual, the location scouting is extravagant.
Casino Royale includes a dizzyingly kinetic on-foot chase scene
through a construction site in Madagascar as well as choreographed
waves of sex and violence in Nassau, Bahamas. But there’s also a
cerebral set in the middle of the story, with an über-high-stakes
poker game at the lavish Casino Royale that simmers with
psychological tension.