Casino Royale

As a child James Bond films were the best. Bond after Bond after Bond, he kept winning, outwitting and defeating villain after villain, nemesis after nemesis, until their was nothing left but Pierce Brosnan. By which time I'd grown critical. I really tried to enjoy those films, tried hard, terribly unqualified for my job yet still at work givin’ my all everyday; but it simply couldn't happen. Those films capital Sucked, hold the bacon, and pretty much ruined the franchise for me. That and becoming critically aware of the rampant imperialistic misogyny within its subnarrative.

Nevertheless, David Craig is an excellent Bond and Casino Royale's well crafted. I'm not sure if it's Craig's gritty working class edge (that immediately distinguishes him from Brosnan's pretentious aristocratic qualities), the quick witty dialogue, the fact that this is one of the only Bond films where Bond is permitted a license to display some humanity, or his charming, enticing smile, but Craig's got what it takes to play Bond and may just be able to bring some respectability back to the franchise. The scene where he's tortured allows him to display a degree of emotion never reached by Sean Connery or Roger Moore. Damned intense. The intensity is magnified by Mads Mikkelsen's chilling portrait of Le Chiffre, one of the only Bond villains to lose his agency half way through the film, adding a surprisingly human quality to his character. Le Chiffre quaintly tortures Bond after having lost everything to his resilient rival, filling the scene with that raw kind of cornered-wild-animal charisma that few get the chance to revel within.

Other interesting moments: Bond relishes in his womanizing only to be reprimanded narratively later on after one of his conquests ends up in a body bag. Morality within Bond? Editing used to display meaning within Bond? A direct critique of womanizing within director Martin Campbell's text? Also effective is the scene where Bond's honest love interest is found crying in the shower, unable to deal with his hardboiled realities, only to be comforted by Bond, once again displaying emotions his character is generally denied. We also learn how he came up with his signature drink and see him lounging throughout Venice in a moment that takes us back to the closing scenes of From Russia with Love. Tight paced acute action throughout intermingled with human beings attaining superhuman heights, with more of a focus on character than flesh.

But come on! How can M miss the cold war if this film takes place before Dr. No? How can Felix Leiter be walking? It’s nice to see him again, but it doesn't make any sense. I love seeing Judi Dench play M but how can she fill the pre-Dr. No and post-Die Another Day roles unless M isn't only a designation managed by one individual but is in fact maintained by several people, working unbeknownst as to the identities of the others?

Okay. Enough said. Don't know what more to say. It’s taken us 21 films to finally get to know why Bond is the way he is, and now, in the end, which is the beginning, the question remains regarding whether or not the exposed version of Bond will be as popular as his predecessors, a different version of my theory that if the Leafs finally win the Stanley Cup, everyone in Toronto won't know what to do, and may stop attending games; hence it’s in management's best interests to never win the Cup, so that their profitable pattern is never interrupted (in the same way your partner loses interest in you once you provide answers to the questions you stubbornly refused to answer before: your partner will likely know the answer already but appreciate playing fantasy with you throughout the years as you pretend to contain a clandestine dimension to your thoroughly penetrated personality; hence, if you spoil the fantasy with reality, the mythology governing your relationship comes crashing down).

It’s likely that Bond films will continue to make millions of dollars, the Leafs will continue to sell tickets after winning the Stanley Cup, and you and your partner will find different fantasies to embrace after unravelling your romantic dreamscape, adapting, researching, growing.