Spectre

Synopsis: A cryptic message from beyond the grave leads British spy, James Bond (Daniel Craig), first to the Day of the Dead in Mexico City and then to a funeral in Rome where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) the widow of an international assassin who leads him to a secret meeting of a sinister organisation, SPECTRE. After narrowly escaping the henchman, Mr Hinx (Dave Bautista) Bond must travel to Austria to seek the help of Madeleine Swan (Léa Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis, Mr White (Jesper Christensen). Meanwhile back in London, as Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security is challenging the relevance of M (Ralph Fiennes) and his 00 programme, Bond covertly enlists the help of Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) before confronting SPECTRE’s deadly leader (Christoph Waltz) who has an unexpected connection with Bond’s past.

Keeping up so far? The plot of the latest Bond film (number 24 in the official canon) is nothing if not complicated which proves to be both its strength and its weakness.

It’s coming up for ten years since Daniel Craig slipped into the freshly laundered 007 tuxedo and sipped his first Vodka Martini (shaken, not stirred) from what inevitably proves to be a poison chalice for any actor who takes on the role. Craig’s weariness of playing Bond is widely rumoured and evident both in his interviews and, to a certain extent, his performance in this film. It’s a familiar pathway for actors like Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan who seem, at first, to revel in being cast as the iconic spy before the burden of playing the role in endless sequels takes over their careers. Only Connery (so far) has reneged on the pledge to “never again” play Bond and that was a bit of a mistake, resulting in one of three unofficial Bond films, the 1983 dud Never Say Never Again (and if you’re wondering about the other two, there was a 1954 telemovie with Barry Nelson playing 007 and the whacky 1967 version of the same story, Casino Royale in which David Niven played him as a stuttering retiree. I’m fond of the latter, but it’s an acquired taste!).

Despite Sam Mendes being the third director in the latest incarnation of the franchise, all four of Craig’s films have been cleverly strategic in how they’ve reinvented the creaky old politically incorrect character (in the wake of contemporary rivals like 2002’s The Bourne Identity) whilst respecting and exploiting the hallmarks that we’ve come to expect from a Bond movie. Martin Campbell’s 2006 reworking of Casino Royale got the ball rolling by going back to the beginning with Bond’s first 007 kill, rendered in black and white. After delivering the traditional graphically lavish credit sequence complete with pop song, he then teased us with a few Bond-world crumbs like the invention of the Bond Martini, the donning of the tuxedo, the first meeting with CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, and the classic gun-barrel view of our hero (albeit not as the film’s opener). But we had to wait until right at the end to hear the twanging guitar of Monty Norman’s famous theme. It would be another two films (in fact let’s skip over Quantum of Solace which, except for a good song, was pretty forgettable) before 2012’s Skyfall when Mendes brought back the original Aston Martin (complete with ejector seat) and gave us highly entertaining new interpretations of Moneypenny and Q. That film also gave us a glimpse into Bond’s childhood which, as it turns out, was priming the pump for much of what underpins Spectre.

So,  back to the complexity of the story. What Craig achieves with his Bond (courtesy of a team of writers and the various directors, of course) is a shift from the barely three-dimensional, comic book style hero to a well-rounded and deeply troubled character who is emotionally split between an apparent desire for love and intimacy and an acceptance that he can only survive in this world as a loner. Since Pierce Brosnan played Bond, the Bond-Girl has generally been superseded by the Bond-Woman, a smarter, more assertive and worldly character who meets Bond on (almost) equal terms. He still manages to shag his way through the story but not as frequently and recklessly as in previous incarnations and not without some (albeit slight) emotional connection. And whilst much has been made about Bond bedding Bellucci’s Lucia (an older woman!) it’s Madeleine Swan who captures his heart and leads him to question his relevance almost as much as Max Denbigh does. The problem here, though, is that this romance is expedient and nowhere near as enjoyable as the falling-in-love that happened between Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale. In fact, the resonance of that relationship makes it difficult for the filmmakers to make this new love interest as plausible as the previous one and that is one of the many weaknesses that pepper the story.

In short, it feels like the screenplay overreaches in how much emotional backstory it aims to give Bond and the long bow it needs to draw to not only make Waltz’s villain the “author of all your pain” as he tells Bond, but to tie him into Bond’s childhood whilst simultaneously establishing him as the character who will become (spoiler alert) a well-known master-criminal with a scar on his face and a white cat on his lap. Add to this the valiant effort they make to place SPECTRE at the unseen heart of the three previous films, and the story is almost falling over itself with deeper meaning.

But, the average fan (and I count myself amongst that number) won’t be too perturbed by this because Craig is such a good Bond (not as good as Connery, but not far off) and the action that takes place in the form of thrilling car chases, demolished buildings, gobsmacking aircraft stunts and the trademark wit, along with the satisfyingly refreshed Moneypenny and Q, goes a long way to distracting us from its issues. Even Fiennes, who is no Dame Judi (happily, she still manages to sneak in a cameo) gives us a serviceable M. In the end, the thrill of the ride almost mitigates the quibbles with the content and, despite over-egging the pudding, Mendes does manage to leave us feeling that he has brought these four films to an end point of sorts.  Neither Craig nor Mendes has actually said “never again” just yet, but both of them are keeping their powder dry on what the future holds. If Spectre did turn out to be their final instalment, then it certainly rounds out the quartet nicely and wouldn’t be a bad effort to go out on.

 

 

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