A thoroughly modern bond: Daniel Craig

Two years ago, Casino Royale gave Agent 007’s franchise a massively successful reboot. Suddenly, thanks to the movie’s blend of old-school action, high-stakes intrigue, romantic flair and Daniel Craig’s swimming trunks, James Bond was not just smart and sexy again but ruthless and relevant to a 21st-century audience. So… what now?

That difficult question hovered in the background of several interviews a few weeks back as the principal talents behind Quantum of Solace — the 22nd film in the 46-year-old James Bond series and the second outing for Craig — descended upon the city for a media blitz. The visitors all spoke of what Craig calls the “high-class problems” of trying to extend and capitalize on the elements that made Casino Royale so satisfying. And many of their ideas going into Quantum of Solace must’ve seemed like sound ones.

For one thing, the movie doesn’t involve a new adventure for Bond so much as the settling of what Craig calls “the unfinished business in Casino Royale.” In fact, the narrative begins less than an hour after the final moments of the last movie, a sequel gambit rarely deployed since Halloween II. Says the actor — slightly sweaty due to his choice of cardigan on an unseasonably warm day — “He had fallen in love, had his heart broken and been betrayed, which is kind of the big message we were trying to put across in Casino Royale. This betrayal had thrown him because this is a man who never loses at cards, never loses at love, never loses at anything — he’s James Bond. To sort of just paper over all that in the next movie by going off and saying, ‘Oh yeah, there was that girl once,’ that seemed the wrong thing to do.”

Bond’s feelings of grief dominate the proceedings as he hunts for those he holds responsible for the death of his sweetie, Vesper. The trail leads to Haiti, where he first encounters Dominic Green (Mathieu Amalric), a seemingly eco-sensitive entrepreneur who is really part of a sinister consortium named Quantum. He also meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a Bolivian secret agent with a vendetta of her own. Bond’s black-and-white approach to a world in which all the players are painted in shades of grey ultimately puts him on the wrong side of the British Secret Service and the C.I.A. It also highlights another of the Quantum of Solace team’s key decisions: to create a stronger real-world political context for Bond.

“I felt like it was important not to just have this fantasy,” says director Marc Forster. “If we want people to connect with Bond, we have to give him this backdrop of the real political problems we are facing. I also think that with the environmental problems, the economy collapsing and all of these issues going on, it would not be right to remove it from Daniel’s interpretation of Bond. I think the only reason these movies work right now is having that political landscape.”

As for the actor, he resists the idea that Quantum of Solace features a politicized Bond, despite references to the international problems caused by the growing scarcity of resources and the competition to control what’s left.

“Bonds have always been naturally kind of apolitical,” he says. “They can’t really comment. But ultimately, there’s always going to be a political statement. The idea of using commodities such as water or oil in this one is a very obvious choice — it just happens to get more and more relevant as the hours tick by! There’s also the idea that people who are buying up commodities are really the ones who are pulling the strings. I always maintain it’s a Bond movie and we can’t go down a political road because it’s not our job to do that. But to comment on it and to make it as prescient as possible is also very important because it’s a modern movie.”

Other efforts to keep Bond in the present tense — such as the nonchalant presentation of GPS and other gadgetry that used to seem so strange and exotic — also add some texture to this instalment. That’s why it’s particularly disappointing that Quantum of Solace feels so uninvolving. Too many viewers may lack the encyclopedic knowledge of the events in Casino Royale necessary to understanding the overly complicated plot here. What’s more, Bond’s predominant mood of anger precludes not just any romantic tension with Camille but any trace of pleasure in the whole endeavour.

And though the action sequences boast plenty of verve and novelty — we’re talking car chases, speedboats, airplanes, a Tuscan smackdown and an exploding hotel — their impact is diminished by the film’s inability to convey their relevance to the hero’s objectives.

It’s hard not to be left with an older question: how badly do we need James Bond around? Asked to ponder his take on 007, Craig says that it has never been his intention to modernize the man, however much his world has been modernized in the last two films. “He likes fast cars, he likes beautiful women, he likes champagne — he likes all the things that James Bond has always liked. I’ve tried to come at [the character] from a new angle to refresh as opposed to reinvent it.”

But despite all of Craig and Forster’s careful efforts, the case that Quantum of Solace makes for Bond’s contemporary relevance — as well as his value as an action hero — is not nearly as strong as its predecessor’s. Expect another reboot.