Very few film franchises can boast that they have touched American, nay, world culture to any degree. Do you really find it plausible that the folks at “Scary Movie” (bless their little hearts) find their witty script writing in daily German conversation? Or that outside our borders, the term “band camp” means anything other than a place where serious musical scholars (perish the thought) gather to share musical ideas, as opposed to uses for various ends of a flute (permission to use imagination). Ian Fleming’s personification of suave and cool has left his debonair fingerprints all over the cooling corpses of scoundrels and sizzling backsides of generations of the most desirably renowned beauties onscreen since 1962! For nearly half a century, we have all slept a little safer and thrilled a little more because of the work of one man (cue the music), James Bond.
“Quantum of Solace” marks the 22nd outing for Britain’s super spy and the second for the series newest Bond, Daniel Craig. As with any character receiving a makeover, there is debate. Who is the best Bond? In my opinion, it depends on what you desire in a film. The caricature of the indestructible, never-crumpled ladies man has been put aside in favor of a gritty, damaged, almost savage being fiercely loyal to his friends and positively relentless to his enemies, and I couldn’t be happier.
“Solace” finds Bond still engaged in the aftermath of “Casino Royale.” The loss of Vespa (Eva Green) wears heavy on his heart and puts those behind her demise in the most unenviable of positions. When an interrogation of captured Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) leads to the unthinkable knowledge that MI-6 has been infiltrated by an unknown group, Bond immediately swings into action following the infiltrator on a course that will lead him from Italy to London, Haiti, Austria, and finally, Bolivia.
A secret organization found to be named “Quantum” is operating under the radar of world intelligence groups amassing a fortune by claiming commodities in an ever-shrinking world market. Point man for this true “Axis of Evil” is one Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Greene is being shadowed by more than Mr. Bond, however. He has also fallen under the watchful eye of Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a former lover with seemingly much more than sex as a motivating factor. Bond soon finds himself mixed up with Camille (not in the traditional Bond sense, perverts), and together they seek to thwart the Quantum group.
Once again, the new Bond far surpasses any of the comic-book style of the originals, for my personal tastes. The first group of Bond films (“Dr. No,” “Goldfinger”) was soon followed by the caricature that “became” Bond. This new flawed, vulnerable and human incarnation of the Bond name takes the sorely hurting franchise (Dalton and Brosnan — really?) and gives it a necessary jolt and direction that should carry it on into the future.
I do caution: They need to be careful. At times, this script seemed to lose its focus, and several of the tight moments began to border on implausible, which was one of the truly magical components of the “Casino Royale” film. Its mixture of sleuth-y sorcery and dark realism made for cinematic brilliance, and “Solace,” while still being a top-flight action/spy flick, fell slightly short of its predecessor. Nonetheless, I will continue to be a fan of this new incarnation, at least for as long as I continue to be both shaken and stirred.
Rating: WWW 1/2
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