A Complex Bond NEWN!
UDO BOWL O N ODLE
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The latest 007 installment gets to the heart of the suave, womanizing super-spy By John J. Bennett filmland@northcoastjournal.com
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30 North Coast Journal • Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com
Reviews
SKYFALL. The makers of the Bond franchise don’t have to reinvent the wheel. As long as they give us some ripping action scenes, sexy ladies, a few clever one-liners and a memorable villain we’ll all dutifully stream into the theater. (I suspect that allegiance to the series, rather than the depth and quality of this latest installment, fueled last weekend’s big box office numbers). And Skyfall certainly delivers all the delicious trappings we’ve come to want and expect. Thing of it is, it also neatly deconstructs the James Bond character and the mythology surrounding him before setting us up, at movie’s end, for a new beginning. The opening finds Bond (Daniel Craig) in Istanbul, attempting to mop up an operation gone very bad. Multiple MI6 operatives lie dead or dying, and a critical computer drive has fallen into the wrong hands. In a rare moment of compassion and internal conflict, Bond is forced to abandon his wounded comrades and pursue the stolen drive, per the seemingly dispassionate orders of M (Judi Dench). A thrilling motorcycle chase sequence ensues, through the Grand Bazaar and onto the top of a speeding train. Bond and a nameless assassin lock in mortal combat while greenish field agent Eve (Naomie Harris) watches from a distance.
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Ordered by M to attempt a shot at the villain, despite the risk, Eve hits Bond instead. His “death” is made public, and he secretly enters a period of boozy beachside carousing. Meanwhile, back in London, our unknown antagonist uses the contents of the purloined drive (real identities of agents undercover inside terrorist cells) to harass and blackmail MI6 and M specifically. A grizzled Bond reappears, drawn by an allegiance even he doesn’t fully understand, to track and kill the villains. He also confronts M for her seeming nonchalance at ordering the shot that might have killed him. This establishes one of the central themes of the narrative. M, surrogate mother to all of her agents in the field, is continually forced to weigh the good of the many against the good of the few. In this case, the scales came down against Bond, perhaps her most beloved, most difficult adoptive son. This notion of dysfunctional parenthood informs every aspect of the plot as it moves forward. Bond’s investigation leads him to Shanghai and Macau, and into a few scrapes and welcoming beds along the way. He discovers that his nemesis is a former Double-0 agent with even bigger mommy issues than his own. As played by the tremendous Javier Bardem, Silva is a brilliant, malignant, blond-haired dandy. Bardem is one of the most recognizable stars in cinema, but he somehow manages to transform himself time and time again. Here he carries himself with bemused, swishing menace and creates the most memorable Bond villain of them all. Silva used to be M’s chosen one and, when tested, proved he would sooner die than show disloyalty. But death eluded him, despite his best efforts. Left out in the cold, he began building a complex, ingenious revenge plot against the mother who abandoned him. This plot drives Bond and M closer together and eventually to a fiery standoff at Bond’s boyhood home in the Scottish highlands.