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RHYTHM TOKEN
ANOTHER WAY TO BOND
QUANTUM OF SOLACE (PG-13) From the open
ing sequence—a car chase on a twisty, scenic
Italian highway—the 22nd James Bond film
feels more like a traditional Bond movie than
its immediate predecessor, Casino Royale. The
sandy opening titles, cued to Jack White and
Alicia Keys' appropriately homy and sludgy
title track, "Another Way to Die," would
impress Saul Bass. Monty Norman's famous
"James Bond Theme" pops up intermittently
throughout 007's latest mission, a revenge-
fueled takedown of a rogue environmental
ist not surprisingly named Dominic Greene
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's Mathieu .
Amalric). The quips and gadgets may still
be MIA, and this Bond gets laid less than
Timothy Dalton in The Living
Daylights. Otherwise, Quantum
of Solace (an unwieldy title into
which the film offers no additional
insight) is a solid, middle-of-the-
canon Bond film with a capital B,
lodged comfortably between the
top (Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's
Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved
Me, Casino Royale) and the bottom
(The Man with the Golden Gun,
License to Kill, A View to a Kill,
The World Is Not Enough).
Daniel Craig's second outing
as Ian Fleming's famous secret
agent is as lean as the muscular
star. Director Marc Forster, whose
versatility would have a made him
a crafty studio system director,
reins in the rather epic tenden
cies of the last few Bond films.
He is, to quote new Bond girl,
Camille (Olga Kurylenko, pretty,
tough, but forgettable in the
long line of disposable lasses),
"horribly efficient." Quantum of
Solace, the shortest Bond film
ever and the first under-two-hour
entry since 1997's Tomorrow Never
Dies, clocks in a good half an
hour shorter than the too-long-
for-its-own-good Casino Royale.
But Forster brings more than his
Swiss-German efficiency to Bond;
he also brings some style, something the
Pierce Brosnan Bonds sorely missed. Forster
wears his knowledge of the Bond canon and
his fandom for the films well. Tips of the cap
to From Russia with Love (less obvious) and
Goldfinger (hard to miss) will be welcomed by
Bondophiles across the globe. He also employs
some creative Bourne-quality action sequences
that continue Casino Royale's move toward a
more brutal Bond. Gone are the days of Roger
Moore's two quips and a side kick. The tough
stunt work and vicious hand-to-hand combat
make it easy to see how Craig kept getting
hurt during filming.
Despite being raised on Roger Moore, I
am thankful for the breath of fresh air that
is Daniel Craig's monosyllabic Bond. The
Brosnan writing regime had grown too fond
of Bond mots that were less double and more
single entendres. Even the actor, who cut
his teeth on a television show famed for its
punny episode titles, had begun to grimace.
I die a little inside each time Bond purrs, "I
thought Christmas only came once a year," to
Denise Richards' unlikely nuclear physicist, Dr.
Christmas Jones. The most strapping Bond,
Craig (he could easily whip his five predeces
sors in a fight, and not simply because only
one of them is under 60) brings the cold
virility written about by Fleming in the origi
nal novels. Craig also displays the proper dry
Brit wit one expects from their Bond when the
exchange, be it with Judi Dench's wonderful M
or villains like Casino Royale's bloody-teared
Le Chiffre or Dominic Greene, requires it.
As well as Quantum of Solace scratched
my James Bond itch, a point does arrive
in the middle where the world domination
plot should kick in, and instead we find out
Greene's evil plan is to control the water sup
ply... in Bolivia. WTF? That's the best this
new nefarious organization, Quantum (or is it
QUANTUM?), can come up with. SPECTRE would
be ashamed to field such a pitifully small-scale
scheme; Blofeld would have dealt harshly
and quickly with whatever minion devised
that rather blase endeavor. I'm not asking for
Moonraker-esc\\jie outer space shenanigans, but
at least set your sights a little higher like on,
say, the world's water supply. Two solid films
into the James Bond franchise reboot may be
the right time for writers Paul Haggis, Neal
Purvis and Robert Wade (if they return) to up
the ante a bit. Going back to Fleming's nov
els doesn't mean everything Bond has to be
grimly realistic. Bring back the gadgets (if not
John Cleese's replacement Q). Leave the small
time spying to Jason Bourne; plot a massive
global scheme for Bond to foil. Give us more
titteringly named coquettes (Gemma Arterton's
Strawberry Fields was cute, but she's no Pussy
Galore—a name Fleming himself came up
with). Give us more of Jeffrey Wright's CIA
Agent Felix Leiter too (maybe he can meet up
with a hungry shark or two—and live—like
Fleming envisioned). Most importantly, give
us more Bond and soon. The brief Quantum
of Solace just whet my appetite. Every new
Bond film, good or bad, leaves me hungry for
another. One more is never enough. Twenty-
two isn't enough. How many other 46-year-old
franchises can I say that about? None.
Drew Wheeler
Daniel Craig
14 FLAGPOLE.COM • NOVEMBER 19,2008