Quantum of Solace

Prod Barbara Broccoli Michael Wilson

Written By Paul Haggis Neil Purvis Robert Wade

Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Geoffrey Wright

Synopsis:

A now fully-qualified and focussed Bond successfully kidnaps Mr White, a suspect in an international Criminal Organisation, brings him in for "interview" only to witness an audacious breakout and attempt on M’s Life by a deep cover traitor within the service. Bond’s attempts to uncover the criminal cartel and it’s high ranking world political connections see him once again getting up the noses of the Service and the British Government, whilst tracking the bad guy, Matthieu Amalric’s sinisterly ordinary Dominic Greene, round the globe.

He is aided and abetted along the way by highly trained Intelligence Officer Camille (A smouldering Olga Kurylenko, all fire and venom), whose quest for revenge against her father’s killer puts her on a parallel course; also former Spy and object of some suspicion Mathis (Brilliantly played by super chilled Giancarlo Giannini), CIA Central America Station Agent Felix Leiter (Geoffrey Wright, on fine form in a classic supporting role)...

...Oh and Gemma Arterton, who whilst a true professional and a credit to old London town has little point whatsoever in the Narrative but is nice to look at in her hugely inappropriate raincoat and boots ensemble in sweltering Panama.



Review:

It’s a Bond film... but (and I don’t think I’m alone thinking this), it’s all different and unsettling. Now, younger viewers, who haven’t grown up with the previous incarnations are not going to know or care but some fundamental sacred precepts have been callously tossed aside here:

• In Bond films, say the old scriptures, Bond does lots of ‘Lovemaking’. Girls fall at his feet and are pretty much treated like fast food.

• In Bond films, according to ancient lore, Bond has a bunch of gadgets which all get used just in the nick of time to save his skin, then get wrecked, stolen or lost which annoys Q in the technical department no end.

• In Bond films, as is the accepted wisdom, Bond Kicks Ass. Bad guys get way more than they bargained for with the well spoken Englishman, and lots of people die.

Well, times have changed. Gone are the gratuitous sex scenes. Bond does indeed ‘get it on’, and Daniel Craig brings a new dimension of insouciant charm to the seduction that I for one found amusing. What may annoy the traditionalists, though, is the way things had to be almost justified after the acts. The emotional state of the characters has to be established to make sure that no one was getting exploited for someone’s empty sexual gratification.

As for the Gadgets. Well I guess Q (or his replacement from the recent films, R) is out of a job. Bond seems to rely on standard production road cars and his favourite Walther automatic handguns. That and his usual ingenuity. Maybe it’s the global financial downturn/Credit Crunch.

Now the fights. Oh yes the fights, This is one area that I can say quite happily the new Quantum of Solace formula has got it exactly right. There is just no comparison. The opening fight in Italy is incredible. Gone are the laboured slug-a-thons and amateur wrestling of the seventies and eighties. Gone also is the slickly timed thrusting dynamic Martial Arts of the nineties.

Bond fights like a man fighting for his life. He has no limits and the combat is vicious and fast. He fights very close to his opponents, often within their space, and economically. There is no wasted movement (or posturing) and the overall effect is to heighten the sense of urgency.

Is it possible to re-inject doubt and fear for Bond into this series? If it is, then this production team have done so. The combination of Gary Powell’s fight coaching, Stunt Professional Kai Martin’s (And an Army of Stunt Professionals) work on behalf of Bond. and Marc Forster’s’s Direction as well as Daniel Craig’s absolute believability as a covert warrior on the edge make this a success.

There are moments that call Bourne favourably to mind, but this is Bond and it’s all about spectacle. So the fights and chases are pushed to the absolute limit of human ability and then a good way beyond. The stand-out action scenes - the rooftop/ Belltower in Italy, the casually executed murder in the hotel room of some nameless hitman, and the final attack scene at the Hotel in South America - are all edge of the seat sequences.

The Locations are far flung and exotic, but not in a Lavish way. Dennis Gassner’s Production Design is seamless and brilliant, not like the opulence of old Bond, instead reality always plays centre stage. Crumbling rooftops in Italy, decaying squares in Cuba, impoverished villages in Bolivia, the final scene in the luxury hotel is dominated first by the flat bland emptiness of the landscape, then the sterile nouveau minimalism of the hotel interior. In these weird lonely places you can see, never mind feel the loneliness and isolation that most of the characters in the story feel.

To sum up, this new Bond is definitely strange and different, but nothing can stay the same forever and this evolution has, in my opinion worked. It is real enough for our time, and unreal enough to still be Bond.

7 out of 10 (Sulaco)

Ungenerous? Watch out for the narrative-damaging pointlessness of Gemma Artertons sequence. A fine talent cruelly mis-used. Also, occasional unrealistic plot devices too obvious even for a Bond film, but I won’t dwell on them. Enjoy.

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