The Wrong Advices

“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.” Ian Fleming, Casino Royale.

Casino Royale is no doubt my favourite of Fleming’s novels. Compared to the cynical and jaded character Bond evolves into in the later novels, the 007 of Casino Royale is vulnerable, maybe even a little naive, and somewhat wary of his line of work. There are many times when it looks like his numbers up, moments where his nerve is on the edge of cracking, and countless occasions where he is outsmarted by his enemy. He makes mistakes. Lots of them. And the punishment he endures, both physically and mentally is something the character of the films has never really had to deal with. With the exception of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Bond in the films has rarely been dented. Unfortunetly as the film series progressed the character of Bond became more and more detached from Fleming’s vision and when Connery called it quits it went into a steep decline.

I came to the novels after having been hooked by the films so seeing Bond in this new light came as a surprise. It wasn’t what I expected, but I liked it, and as I quickly read through all the novels I became more and more angry with what had been done with the films, especially some of the Roger Moore efforts. Moonraker. Enough said.

By the time Pierce Brosnan was done with his run of films the character of James Bond had turned into a parody. Every now and again between big explosions, ridiculous dialogue, and ludicrous gadgetry we’d get a glimpse of the real 007, but it was few and far between. But that changed, not because they wanted to be more true to the character but because that formula wasn’t making money anymore. So the producers decided to reboot the series and recast the role of Bond.

It worked. I’m a big fan of Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. The films themselves may not have been brilliant but up until that point it was the closest anyone had come to matching the character of the novels. Until now.

Casino Royale is a great film. Daniel Craig is excellent as James Bond. The naysayers can complain about the blond hair, and his looks, but in the end it isn’t all that important. He got the character right, thats what matters. Not a great deal actually happens in the novel so they’ve had to pad out the story a little and they’ve changed a few things along the way but it still works. For the first time since Connery was Bond the people making the films have treated the source material with respect. And it shows.

The action this time around has a very rough and brutal feel to it, though its still a little over the top in parts, it never ventures into the ridiculous. There are so many great moments in this film that have translated with ease from the novel. If you’ve never read it then this film will really give you a knock. You’ve never seen Bond like this before.

It would also be a shame not to mention Eva Greene. She is absolutely gorgeous in this and hits her marks perfectly with the character of Vesper Lynd. Her relationship with Bond is central to the film and without a great actress in that role the film could have really fallen flat.

Overall I’m really impressed with how it turned out. The producers have laid a good foundation for the next few films so hopefully they won’t squander the goodwill they’ve earnt with this one.

imdb 7.9/10
rotten tomatoes 94%
metacritic 80/100