Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Albert Finney, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris
Rated: PG-13
143 minutes
Daniel Craig is Agent 007 and Judi Dench is Agent M in “Skyfall,” the latest Bond movie. (Courtesy photo)
What is there to say about 007 movies that hasn’t already been said? James Bond is sly, he’s powerful, he’s got good aim with his gun (although “Skyfall” challenges this notion in particular). What can I say about “Skyfall” that isn’t obvious? All your favorite Bond tropes are back, accompanied this time by some modern and historical twists and turns, and it is, as per usual, an exciting ride.
We meet up with Bond (Daniel Craig, in the role for the third time) on a mission in Turkey, trying to retrieve a stolen hard drive with the names of all the undercover MI6 agents in the world. The mission goes awry and Bond ends up falling off a bridge, shot accidentally by another agent. M (Judi Dench, in the role for the seventh time) declares him dead.
But he isn’t dead; he’s just enjoying a brief respite from work. He comes back after hearing of a terrorist attack on MI6’s headquarters by a villain who keeps hacking into the agency’s computers and wreaking havoc. This villain, we find out, is a man who calls himself Silva (Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”). He’s also behind the theft of MI6’s hard drive. So off Bond goes to catch Silva before he uses his technological prowess to cause even more damage.
Naturally, capturing a villain like Silva won’t be easy, and even taking him into custody and putting him in the high-security detainment cell at MI6 isn’t enough. When he gets out, he takes off on a destructive path, his eyes set on M. What ensues is a dangerous game of cat and mouse, with Silva always knowing Bond and M’s strategies before they themselves do. Eventually, the only place Bond can think to run to is the decidedly low-tech Skyfall estate in Scotland, where he grew up. Sure enough, Silva is right on their tails, and he’s prepared to fight.
This is a strange Bond movie, something of an anomaly in a now 50-year-old series. For starters, the famous Bond girls have been redubbed Bond women, and the women who appear in “Skyfall” as Bond’s illustrious lovers are only on-screen briefly (one of them doesn’t even have a speaking part). Instead, M has a much larger part to play than usual, and so she, if anyone, becomes Bond’s chief “damsel in distress,” if you can describe any sentiment of M’s as distress. Additionally, this Bond movie is fairly straightforward, with very few plot twists, or at least very few that we couldn’t see coming. The biggest twist is that we see, for once, a weaker Bond, one who is fallible (this is only the second Bond movie ever to show him getting shot) and in need of help sometimes.
What Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) gives us is action at its most exaggerated heights, a series of explosions on top of explosions and reckless endangerment of civilians and train-top fights and knife fights and some more explosions, all shot cleanly and beautifully. And Daniel Craig is calm throughout–his stoic demeanor makes me think of an older, more muscular, and slightly less doofy-looking Keanu Reeves. Apparently this is meant as suave, but I think it’s the suitcases of money and snazzy tuxedoes and 50 year-old brandy that make this movie suave.
I’m not inclined to discuss the acting merits in something as ubiquitous as a James Bond movie; these actors are playing roles that change very little from one film to the next, and with which the public is so familiar by now that discussing acting is fairly inconsequential. That being said, Sam Mendes is good with actors, and very few of them are subpar. And this is including the enormous supporting cast, which includes people like Albert Finney (“Tom Jones”), Ralph Fiennes (“Schindler’s List”), and Naomie Harris (“28 Days Later”).
“Skyfall” might be a rehashing of instantly recognizable symbols, if you want to be harsh about it, but Bond fans and those of us who aren’t as familiar with the series will enjoy this installment. In fact, there are some who call this the best Bond movie ever. I’m not sure about that, but it’s no slouch. I left the theater not in any rush to see it again, but I do want to go watch the old Bond movies now.
Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
