Film File - Quantum of Solace

Even James Bond is not immune to the recession. In the follow-up to 'Casino Royale", 007 is once again out to save the world - a world we"re all very used to from today"s financial headlines, with oil and a mad accountant as the main plot devices around which the story revolves. There"s even a nod back to one of the earliest Bond movies, 'Goldfinger", where Shirley Eaton met her doom covered in gold paint - this time around the unfortunate gal meets a sticky end thrown across a rumpled bed covered from head to toe in oil. At the press screening of the film, even journalists were subject to MI6-style security with all mobile phones confiscated before the film to prevent any pirate recording, as well as eagle-eyed security wandering around the aisles ready to pounce on any recording devices. With the Jack White and Alicia Keys" theme tune, Another Way To Die, setting the mood with the usual opening credit of naked women in silhouette, the 22nd film in the world"s most successful movie franchise hits the skids running as Daniel Craig takes on the forces of evil in search of revenge for his partner, Vesper, who died at the end of 'Casino Royale". Lean and mean he certainly is, but this time with an even more ruthless streak showing as he wanders well beyond the rules of engagement in an embittered quest for blood. Much of the old Bond has been dumped in favour of a more Jason Bourne-type of agent this time around - no shaken martinis, no arched eyebrow quips, and none of the trademark double entendres. Coming in at 106 minutes, this is also the leanest Bond in terms of cinema length - but the most expensive ever to make at €150 million. Based on an Ian Fleming novella published in 1959, the core material is unlike any of the 007 creator"s other literary output where he cast aside much of the violence and spy craft in favour of reflection on longing, marriage, society and passion. The quantum of solace to which the title refers was Fleming"s mathematical measurement of love. Happily for audiences, the filmmakers have cast aside most of the heavy emotional baggage of the book for another rousing and action packed journey to the heart of the world"s most famous secret agent. The story kicks off an hour after where Casino Royale ended with Bond still reeling from the death of Vesper. In his black Aston Martin, Bond rips across the cliff-top roads around Italy"s Lake Garda pursued by a pair of Alfa Romeos with bullets, rubber and speed pulling us once again into the joy of 007. The fact that four serious crashes occurred during the making of the film adds further to the realism of the piece. This sequence is followed by an even more eye-popping set piece as he battles baddies on a rooftop. Judi Dench is once again the icy M, a woman who mixes her role as MI6 head with some snappy one-liners, with Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Atherton as the opposing love interests, Tim Pigott-Smith plays the British Foreign Secretary, and Jeffrey Wright as CIA man Felix Leiter. The evil baddie this time around is Dominic Greene, played by Frenchman Mathieu Amalric, who played the lead role in 'The Diving Bell And The Butterfly". He is attempting to control the world"s water supply under the cover of his politically correct ecological conservation conglomerate. A man of the times we live in, Greene is a ruthless cad in a suit - oily, charming, and constantly on the verge of going totally bonkers. He"s no Blofeld with the purring pussy on his lap, mind, but still a villan made for the times we live in. As Bond goes outside the grid of responsibility, he is put on the MI6 and CIA capture or kill hit list as he hurtles after Greene in a vengeful kill or be killed mission for his lost love. With director Marc Forster of The Kite Runner fame helming the film, this Bond looked back to the earliest 007 for inspiration. 'I wanted to return to the stylish look of the early Bond films. I had to find a new place in the world for Bond to be Bond on his journey.' This included giving London a different look: 'I wanted to show London the way nobody"s ever seen it before.' One example was shooting at the Barbican, Europe"s largest multiple-arts center, with its cast concrete and 'unique textural patterns.' Another was a complete redesign of the MI6 headquarters on the newly built sets at Pinewood. Other locations used in the film include Italy, Chile, Austria and Panama. While the serious subject matter of Bond seeking personal vengeance for his lost lady, the script does allow for some winning humour. Not of the Roger Moore arched eyenbrow type, though, but more in the sardonic vein where Dench gets the best lines. Craig himself is once again chiselled, but this time not as beefy buff as 'Casino Royale" - more toned and wiry, exactly as one would expect an agent to be. He does mumble a bit, and sometimes the dialogue is difficult to follow - a fact that probably won"t trouble most action fans as the 106 minutes are peppered with action sequences following each other. Much attention has been placed on the stunts this time - a fact that"s very evident from the very first vertigo-inducing car chase around Lake Garda. Quantum is not vintage Bond, certainly, and comes a distant second to its predecessor in terms of character development and tension. Quantum is driven by special effects and action - a fact that may annoy older audiences - but will doubtless please all in the under-25 bracket. Once again, Daniel Craig has gripped the persona of the world"s most famous film creation in his bruised and bloodied hands and made it undeniably his own. Quantum Of Solace may not be a classic, but it does show once again a Bond in touch with the times he lives in. The fight goes on.