Bond’s Triumphant Return in SKYFALL


Daniel Craig made an impressive debut as Ian Fleming’s super spy James Bond in Casino Royale, but its followup, Quantum of Solace, was a marked drop off which threatened to derail the franchise. Enter director Sam Mendes (American Beauty), a well honed script (Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan), and a dream cast. The result is a well acted, emotionally compelling adventure thriller that takes the formula and rips it open to expose Agent 007 as we’ve never seen before. It is also one of the best films of the year and certainly one of the very best Bond films.

British secret service agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) and fellow operative Eve (Naomie Harris) are in pursuit of a killer who has stolen a hard drive containing the names of all NATO agents imbedded in terrorist groups. A fateful decision by MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) leads to Bond being put out of commission. While M is being leveraged into retirement by her supervisor (Ralph Feinnes) and Bond has lost his edge, a mysterious figure (Javier Bardem) from M’s past begins a reign of cyber terror and revenge. As agent 007 struggles with his future and his loyalties to M, he must look to his past to reconcile his biggest challenge.

There are obvious comparisons to The Dark Knight Rises with a fallen hero searching for his ‘mojo’. Most Bond films operated superficially and featured unusual characters, and with rare exceptions (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and of course the more recent Casino Royale) did we delve into the personal side. While early incarnations of the super agent showed him nearly invincible, this Bond is a more humanized reinvention without emasculating its hero. For the first time, Craig’s Bond has a sense of humor with puns and quips (a staple of the earlier films). In fact, much of the dialogue is sharp.

By delving into the core relationships, the filmmakers have added layers and twists to a conventional formula. The main themes center on loyalty, sins of the past, and tradition clashing with the new order. There are parallels between Bond and M as relics of an age gone by and between Bond and his doppelganger as direct opposites.

This is Dench’s showcase as M. Although her allegiance to Bond was a recurring theme in the previous two films with Craig, never before has her character been shown in such depth. After seven Bond films, her M has gone from background to foreground as a primary plot point, and she does not disappoint.

There is a nice buildup to Bardem’s entrance whose psychological motives are questionable including his sexuality. This is not your father’s Bond villain. As Silva, a man with a dark past whose methods are bold and brazen, Bardem instills a decided creepiness and cunning that is refreshing. Think of Bardem’s character as the black sheep of a dysfunctional family with M in the maternal role.

A strong supporting cast includes Ben Whishaw as the new quartermaster Q, a young computer whiz who represents the new breed of spy, Bérénice Marlohe as a stunning beauty who holds the key to her dangerous employer, and Harris in a pivotal role.

With splendid global locations (Istanbal, Shanghai, and Scotland), this may be the most beautifully shot Bond film (Roger Deakins) since You Only Live Twice. Some scenes are visual standouts like a sultry shower rendezvous and a moment of hand-to-hand combat all done in shadows and silhouette.

In this age of 24, Jason Bourne, and Homeland, the stakes are much higher in depicting realistic action and techie scenes, and Skyfall holds its own with solid set pieces including a subway bombing and a tense climax with echoes of Straw Dogs. There are specific references to the Bond canon including the reappearance of a certain iconic car.

It is remarkable how current, top directors have been directly influenced or inspired by these movies. Steven Spielberg did the Indiana Jones movies as homage to Bond films and even cast former Bond, Sean Connery, as Indy’s dad! James Cameron did his take on a super spy with True Lies. Christopher Nolan filmed an entire sequence in Inception as tribute to Bond. David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has Bond style, opening credits; (Skyfall has terrific credits and a sultry, throwback theme song by Adele). Even Quentin Tarantino suggested several years ago that the Bond films needed to get gritty and basic; think the filmmakers took notice?

As J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins showed, a classic franchise can be reinvented or updated while reaping enormous dividends. With the most touching finale to a Bond film, there are big surprises and a distinct familiarity by film’s end that sets the series for a grand run. For Bond purists, this is uncharted territory, but by ‘shaking’ up the mythology, Bond’s story has become ‘stirring’.

***1/2 of **** stars

Truth Is Better Than Fiction in ARGO

Ben Affleck has been a leading man with credibility behind the camera as the Oscar-winning co-writer (with Matt Damon) of Good Will Hunting. Having shown promise as a director in Gone Baby Gone and then excelling in The Town, he has peaked in his craft with Argo, a thoroughly engaging, real life thriller grounded in historic fact and abetted by a superior screenplay (Chris Terrio from a news article).

On November 4, 1979 in revolutionary Iran, angry students storm the US embassy and take civilian and military hostages, but unknown to the public, six Americans escape to a nearby Canadian’s home where they remain stranded with no hope of rescue. Despite a myriad of standard tactics to spirit them out of Iran, every plan has a serious flaw, and each passing day heightens the probability of the Americans’ discovery, capture, and possible execution as spies. Enter Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), an expert at ex-filtration or the liberating of valuable government assets for the CIA. His plan is a bold, imaginative conceit: a Hollywood movie crew scouting locations in Iran while sneaking the Americans out as part of the film crew. Despite the misgivings of highly skeptical State Department and CIA officials led by Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston), the mission is given a ‘go’ with little hope of success. Compounding things is the fact that the Iranians are painstakingly sifting through the embassy’s hastily shredded documents. With the assistance of an Oscar winning makeup artist, John Chambers (John Goodman), and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), Mendez creates an elaborate, fake science fiction movie named Argo complete with a script and cast. Will this movie cover work and can Mendez get the six Americans to freedom in time? As a true story only recently declassified by the US government, these actual events lead to a breathtaking finish.

The authentic reenactment of the embassy takeover is expertly, vividly intercut seamlessly with real news footage. Affleck has a keen eye for detail, and he convincingly captures the chaos and paranoia that grips the trapped Americans. Good use of handheld camerawork adds to the authentic feel of this quasi-documentary narrative. It’s like an episode of TV’s Mission Impossible, and, in fact, this could easily have been a made-for-TV movie, but it works better on the big screen where it has maximum impact. There are more than passing similarities to Wag the Dog and its phony movie ruse.

The Anti-American sentiment and mistrust fosters a claustrophobic atmosphere as the six Americans are under great pressure. The film depicts the real threats and atrocities in the city streets including random executions. Not knowing who to trust, the Americans bicker amongst themselves with some expressing serious reservations about this unusual rescue premise while others are feeling despondent. Their fear is not unlike those of pursued Holocaust civilians in World War II.

Mendez, who risks his life to save these strangers, is also a father, and it is that relationship that frames his character in the film emotionally. Chambers and Siegel (a composite character) are patriots with big egos, and while their comic relief is welcome (including a running gag: an off-color play on the word Argo,) in an otherwise suspense-filled narrative, one wonders what truly motivates them?

The final airport sequence is unbearably tense as it ratchets up the threat, and such a relatively basic situation is executed to great effect. We know how the story will end yet it affects us in a visceral way. If the filmmakers take some dramatic license at the end, the film has earned the right to embellish the facts a bit further. After seeing their story, to see the images of the actors and their real life counterparts in the closing credits adds poignancy and credibility.

One can only hope that Affleck can excel to loftier heights with his next project. He is already in rarified air, and an Oscar nomination awaits. In Argo, he has fashioned a nail-biter that never ignores the humanity that binds us together, whether it be father and son, husband and wife, or a rescuer and his newly found friends.

***1/2 stars of ****