CAST: Daniel
Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris; DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes; SCREENWRITER: John
Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade; PRODUCER: Eon
Productions; GENRE: Action-thriller; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins;
DISTRIBUTOR: MGM & Sony Pictures Entertainment; RUNNING TIME: 142 minutes; LOCATION: United Kingdom, China, Turkey
Technical assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V 14
After being written off as dead, James Bond (Daniel
Craig) reemerges in the apartment of M (Judi Dench), right when she is writing
his obituary. Considerably
enervated by the bullet that had hit and sent him plummeting down a raging
river and spending some time as an unknown entity on some faraway beach, he is
subjected to fitness tests for reactivation. The tests reveal Agent 007’s condition to be below
par—scoring low at target shooting among others—nonetheless, M conceals the
test results from Bond, and orders him back to service, much to the chagrin of
the new boss, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). As far as M is concerned, only
Bond would be up to hunting down the villain Javier Bardem (Raoul Silva).
Any James Bond film, for all the vices it glorifies
and justifies, is welcome entertainment fare anytime. Credit, maybe, goes to Bond’s plots, or gadgets, or
villains, for the habit-forming quality of 007 movies. Or maybe it’s the Sean Connery mystique
that got movie buffs hooked on the series decades (50 years?) ago. James Bonds of varying charms and
shortcomings have come and gone, but none, it seems, approximates the original
James Bond’s grace and grit more closely than Daniel Craig. Somehow his James Bond comes across as
more real, alive and authentic.
Now, even if this, Skyfall,
were to be the last 007 movie to be ever made, it certainly would be the
perfect closure to a much-adored, enduring spy series.
There’s an element in this particular 007 sequel
that was never even hinted at in the previous Bond films—conscience. The probability shines that despite
their violence-fraught occupations, James Bond and M feel that in their heart
of hearts, they are really servants to a higher cause. Even the villain Bardem who becomes heartless
from his woundedness musters the guts to prick M’s conscience, saying, “Think
on your sins.” And this happens in
the ruins of a chapel in the house where James Bond spent his childhood. From the dusty and broken symbols of
the faith in that chapel, it seems Bond grew up Catholic. Bond himself, hurt and angry at
being shot on orders of M, (making him a virtual “collateral damage”),
resurrects himself from his non-existence as a nobody on an island to hunt down
Bardem, believing he is serving a greater good even though aware that M could
sacrifice him again if need be.
Another humane touch in Skyfall
is the affection manifested between Bond and M. (Spoiler coming!)
The grand old dame M dies in James Bond’s arms; Bond weeps, and the
viewer surmises that through all the years, Bond has never loved any woman more
than this maternal surrogate.
