Daniel Craig’s (“Knives Out,” “Layer Cake”) run as James Bond has finally come to an end. After much delay, both by production and by COVID-19, “No Time to Die” has finally reached audiences and it is, unquestionably, Craig’s most emotionally wrought turn as Bond yet.
Following the events of “Spectre,” Bond finds himself back in the game to find and take down a shadowy villain who has ties to his past. While this might seem like the same story that the past three Craig Bond films have been trying to tell, “No Time to Die” tells it differently because it zeros in specifically on Bond the man and the emotion behind him.
Screenwriters Neal Purvis (“Casino Royale (2006),” “Skyfall”), Robert Wade (“Casino Royale (2006),” “Skyfall”), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Killing Eve,” “Fleabag”), and co-screenwriter/director Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective,” “Beasts of No Nation”) spend a remarkable amount of time focusing on Bond as he’s dealing with new threats that are coming after him both physically and emotionally. It still has the same wit and tautness of Craig’s other Bond films, but it also feels remarkably fresh for a number of reasons.
Likely a result of Waller-Bridge’s involvement, the female characters are the most fleshed out they’ve ever been in a Bond film. Not only are the performances standouts, but their presence in the film is not that of eye candy as they’ve been in previous films. They’re either emotionally connected to Bond in a way that’s narratively satisfying or they’re his equals, grabbing weapons and helping him take down those who would seek to harm the world. It’s also quite refreshing how many times Bond screws up throughout this adventure.
While his expertise in combat is never a question, multiple scenes put Bond at a nervous disadvantage, showcasing another layer to the character and giving Craig more material to work with. It's quite exhilarating seeing the world’s greatest spy struggle and clearly be nervous. It's not the first time we’ve seen Bond care for people or be put through emotional trauma, but the fact that Fukunaga and writers position it as the focal point of the film, rather than a side effect of his job, gives it so much more weight. Craig also seems to be giving it his all, wanting to make a definitive impact with his last film, and this only strengthens the already strong emotional core, resulting in a film that tugs at the heart strings as much as it pumps adrenaline.
The rest of the cast all do great jobs with the varying screen time that they’re given. Léa Seydoux (“Blue is the Warmest Color,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) continues to be an enigmatic force in Bond’s life and she has excellent chemistry with Craig. The love the two have is palpable and is the central emotional core of the entire film. Ralph Fiennes (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) continues to be overshadowed by Judi Dench, but his version of M is still a wonderfully commanding presence, butting heads with Bond more than ever before and showing the cracks of a man losing control of his agency.
Unfortunately, while the supporting cast is excellent, their excellence is negated a bit by their varying amounts of screen time. Ana de Armas (“Knives Out,” “Blade Runner 2049”) and Jeffrey Wright (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Westworld (2016)”) are standouts, delivering characters that are almost a kind of stop gap between the modern, serious Craig Bond world and the goofier, cheerier world of the pre-90s Bonds. Both are excellent and, unfortunately, both are severely underutilized. Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained,” “Big Eyes”) reprises his role as Blofeld from “Spectre” in what amounts to almost a cameo. Billy Magnussen (“Game Night,” “Aladdin (2019)”) is also a new supporting character from the CIA and as charmingly idiotic as he can be, he’s a welcome sense of comic relief who’s, once again, severely underutilized.
Thankfully, the Bond mainstays avoid the fates of these newer characters. Naomie Harris (“Moonlight,” “28 Days Later”) and Ben Whishaw (“Paddington,” “Mary Poppins Returns”) return as Moneypenny and Q, respectively, and both are so incredibly endearing. They’re the closest thing Bond has to friends and the charm and care they have for him is evident in every scene they share together, whether at work or on their own time. Joining the MI6 crew is Lashana Lynch (“Captain Marvel,” “Still Star-Crossed”) as Nomi, a new 00 agent. She’s an immediately welcome presence, not just for the new female 00 perspective, but as someone for Bond to learn to work with. The two have a subtle and evolving relationship throughout the film and it's one of the stronger emotional relationships Bond has ever had.
That’s a lot of characters, new and old, and that does mean that the film is long. Clocking in at two-hours-and-forty-three-minutes, it may be the longest Bond film and it definitely feels like it. While it is still paced remarkably well and manages to avoid feeling stretched out, “No Time to Die” still cycles through what feels like two film’s worth of plot.
It's a testament to the writing team and to Fukunaga that it is so expertly paced, but one major thing does suffer because of the length: Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot,” “Bohemian Rhapsody”) as the villain, Lyutsifer Safin. Malek, like de Armas and Wright, plays the character with an edge of silliness, though far less than they do. His cold nature is still effective in the film’s more intense sequences and he manages to be a memorable presence despite not really being featured outside of the film’s last third.
As enjoyably dramatic as Sam Mendes’s Bond films were, their action always felt like a bit of an afterthought. It wasn’t terrible, just serviceable alongside the greater dramatic moments. Fukunaga and cinematographer Linus Sandgren (“La La Land,” “First Man”) have shot “No Time to Die” with such a fabulous sense of whimsy and elegance that the action feels brand new again. There isn’t a major shift to how things are choreographed, this isn’t “John Wick.” Rather, there’s more attention given to hand to hand combat and longer shots, instead of the rapid fire editing style of most modern action films. It’s also just shot gorgeously. Wide open vistas, varied locations, gorgeous people and gadgets, all are par for the course in a Bond film, and Sandgren puts them all in focus in such attentive and gorgeous shots, playing with color and lighting throughout.
There is a lot to love about “No Time To Die.” Craig’s final film as Bond is a truly emotional journey, putting the character in positions and scenarios he hasn’t found himself in before to fantastic results. It’s unfortunate then that the length and use of its promising supporting cast prevents it from sailing as high as some previous Bond films. Yet, the film does manage to do one thing better than all the rest. Some critics say that if a film can really grab hold of you emotionally, then all the other nitpicks and issues fall by the wayside.
If a movie makes you cry as credits roll, then those other problems you had couldn’t really have been that big of issues at all. That’s where “No Time to Die” sits, not just in the Bond canon, but this year in film. There will be more adventures, more Aston Martins, and more martinis (shaken, not stirred) in the future. But for right now, “No Time to Die” is a big, grand adventure, pulling all the toys out of the box and going for absolute broke with its emotional storytelling all in favor of giving a send-off to this generation’s Bond. 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment