Quantum of Solace (2008)
Directed by Marc Forster
Written by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade
Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Dame Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Release Date November 14th, 2008
Published November 13th, 2008
Much of the juice of Quantum of Solace rides on whether you bought the whole James Bond-Vesper Lind romance from 2006's Casino Royale. I did not. Thus witnessing Quantum of Solace becomes something of a struggle for motivation. To enjoy it. is to suspend disbelief in an uncomfortable fashion. Believe that Bond could leap through fiery hallways without being burned? No problem. Believing Bond could be shot at more than Dick Cheney's hunting partners and live to tell? Sure, I can buy that.
But trying to believe that the cold hearted ladies man of 22 previous adventures could have his heart melted by a feisty government accountant. Sorry. Can't do it. Thus, Quantum of Solace gets off to a stumbling pace and builds to a non-climax climax on its merry way to promising yet another sequel instead of being the tightly wound, classy action pic it so desperately wishes it were.
Quantum of Solace picks up in the immediate aftermath of Casino Royale. Having captured Mr. White (Jesper Christianson) and begun torturing answers out of him about the shadowy organization he works for, Bond delivers him to M (Dame judi Dench) for further questioning, not before he is chased through the ancient streets of some nameless Italian mountainside.
Mr. White leads to a murder plot in Haiti involving a dangerous young woman named Camille (Olga Kurylenko), ostensibly the girlfriend of Mr. Green (Mathieu Amalric). She was to be the victim but Bond makes the rescue, something he will do several more times throughout the film. From there we are off to Bolivia where there may be oil or diamonds beneath a giant swath of desert and Mr. Green can get his hands on it by funding a military coup.
It's up to Bond to face down Mr. Green, Green's shadowy boss, and even the truly evil forces of corporate and state greed. All the while maintaining his Bond-ian cool which includes drinking, flirting and sexing when necessary. Along for different parts of the ride are Gemma Aterton as Agent Strawberry Fields and Giancarlo Giannini reprising his rather confusing role from Casino Royale.
Directed by Oscar nominee Marc Forster from a script by Oscar winner Paul Haggis, Quantum of Solace should be a great movie but settles for being a good movie. The action is cut to MTV style quick cuts that whip audiences through action scenes so we won't notice any sloppiness. We don't but often we are so dizzy we don't care.
The script makes more sense than much of Casino Royale, but beginning as it does on the false note of Bond's tragic 'love story', it is hamstrung from the start. The script lacks depth beyond its obvious action propellants, leaving only the character of James Bond to keep us from getting up and walking out. Thank heaven Daniel Craig rises to the challenge.
Craig is the baddest of all Bond's and because of him we are compelled past the film's worst flaws. He may not have any interest in sipping martinis or repeating his name and he is entirely without gadgets, but when he invites Gemma Aterton's Strawberry Fields to help him locate something in his bedroom you can't help but smile, knowing the next scene will find Ms. Fields sans clothes. Bond's way with women is one of the few elements of classic Bond to survive the reboot.
The other piece of classic Bond comes in the spectacular credit sequence. The animated opening featuring the nude bodies of gorgeous babes rising from desert sands has the bold, psychedelic look that has defined the Bond credit sequences of the past.
Did I like Quantum of Solace? Kind of. I liked Daniel Craig. I liked individual scenes and I liked the Bond babes, if only for serving their purpose as classic eye candy. But Quantum of Solace comes up short of being a movie I am wild about. It lacks a unifying plot. It lacks one truly breathtaking scene that might make this good movie into a great one, even beyond the plot trouble.
