Casino Royale (2006)

Welcome back to the James Bond marathon!  Casino Royale (2006), official Bond film #21, is the start of a rebooted series starring Daniel Craig.

SYNOPSIS:
Brand-new 00 agent, James Bond (Daniel Craig), prevents a terrorist from blowing up a brand-new airplane.  MI6 learns that Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a known banker of terrorist organizations, lost millions betting against the stocks for the new plane and then quickly set up a high-stakes poker game.  They conclude that he bet his client's funds on the stock market and is desperate to win back the money before his clients notice.  M (Judi Dench), knowing Bond's the best poker player in MI6, assigns him to attend the poker game and clean out Le Chiffre, expecting his angry and violent clientele to take care of him afterward.  She also sends Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), MI6's accountant, to bankroll Bond and pose as his wife.  Will Bond have the skill needed to win a $150 million poker game against a genius player, or will MI6 end up directly financing terrorism?

REVIEW:
This review will have spoilers, just because I want to discuss this film's plot in depth, plus the book it's based on.

This film is absolutely incredible!  The music, cinematography, story, character development... everything about this film is perfect!  This is my all-time favorite Bond film.

It opens in black-and-white, with James Bond earning his 00 status.  To qualify, an agent needs two official kills on his record.  Bond has already killed one, whom we see him struggle with in a flashback.  The second is Dryden (Malcolm Sinclair), Section Chief of MI6.  M learned he was selling secrets and sends Bond to finish him off.  Ending the opening sequence is Bond's first kill, whom he didn't quite finish off, attempting to pull a gun on Bond.  Bond turns and shoots him in a perfect transition to the official gun barrel scene we see at the start of every Bond film.

A modernized version of the classic gun barrel opening, tying in to the plot this time!

What I love about this rebooted James Bond is that he's not just a witty, charming, attractive man who can talk his way in and out of every situation.  His character more closely resembles the dark, gritty, brooding man that Ian Fleming created in his original James Bond novels.  He's highly intelligent, constantly surprising M by sneaking into her apartment, finding out her real name, and using her credentials while hacking into MI6's network from across the globe.  His skill and resourcefulness is so unnerving that M has a tracking chip implanted in his arm to keep tabs on him.

Not the first time this Bond will have a tracking device embedded in his body by MI6...

This James Bond is also arrogant and cocky, betting heavily on his skill to overcome any situation he's in.  It's something I've noticed about past Bond films; his real name and code name (007) are known to everyone, even enemies he's never met, which you would think makes him a terrible spy.  And in a sense, you're right - a good spy is never known and able to sneak in and out undetected, while still obtaining the information they came for.  But James Bond is different.  He doesn't want to waste time on stakeouts or following clues and analyzing intel.  He's very good at piecing together information on the fly and he'd rather confront his enemy face-to-face and lay the (figurative) cards on the table in order to pressure his foe and catch them off-guard, rather than do the "proper" spy way of staying in the shadows.  And he's incredibly good at it.  When time is not on his side, sometimes exposing himself to his enemy gets him what he needs to know much faster than taking the time to research and confirm from a distance.

Bond teasing Le Chiffre with his real name

In Casino Royale (2006), Bond partly explains this to Vesper.  They arrive to their hotel under a pseudonym, but Bond gives his real name to the hotel clerk, telling them his reservation is under the pseudonym name.  He tells Vesper that if Le Chiffre is that well-connected, then he already knows who Bond is and where his money's coming from.  But he's willing to play anyway, so it tells Bond that he's either desperate or overly-confident.  And all he gets in exchange is a name he already has.  Vesper shoots back that now Le Chiffre knows something about Bond - that he's reckless.  Which is very true.

Bond enlists some local help, a fellow MI6 agent named René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), who ensures that local corrupt officials are kept off Bond's back while he plays poker.  Also, when Bond bets the last of his money and loses, a fellow player from the table introduces himself, saying they're "related." We're introduced to Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), a "brother from Langley," also after Le Chiffre.  He cuts a deal with Bond: he'll stake Bond so he can continue playing, as long as Bond agrees to let the CIA take Le Chiffre in after Bond's cleaned him out.  He offers to let Bond keep the $150 million winnings, saying, "Does it look like we need the money?"

Felix Leiter, CIA, makes his return for the reboot!

This film is relatively loyal to the original novel it's based on.  Casino Royale was the very first James Bond book, published by Ian Fleming back in 1953.  Unlike the exciting action scenes that we witness in the film, there's actually very little action in the book.  Most of the novel takes place at the card table, playing Baccarat Chemin-de-fer instead of the film's poker.  Le Chiffre is an agent of SMERSH.

As you may recall from one of my earlier reviews, I mentioned that SMERSH was an actual Russian organization in the mid-40s. It's name was a portmanteau: Смерть шпионам (SMERt' SHpionam, a.k.a. "Death to Spies"). Coined by Joseph Stalin, it was intended to be a counter-intelligence agency, protecting the Red Army from infiltration and internal conflict. Ian Fleming included a fictional version of SMERSH as his international terrorist organization in his novels, up until he wrote Thunderball, where the new acronym SPECTRE took over as their new name.

Main Directorate of Counter-Intelligence "SMERSH"

In the Casino Royale novel, Le Chiffre is desperate to make up his money after a chain of his brothels in France were shut down by a new law.  When Bond cleans him out, he kidnaps Vesper and causes Bond to crash his Bentley while in pursuit.  Taking them to his villa, Le Chiffre proceeds to physically torture Bond's genitals while demanding to know where the check with the winnings has gone.  When Bond shows no signs of giving in, Le Chiffre begins to mentally torture him, explaining what his men might be doing to Vesper in the other room.  But then a SMERSH agent bursts in and shoots Le Chiffre.  He tells Bond that he has no orders to kill him, but that SMERSH are only known to give mercy by chance or by mistake.  He carves a Russian Cyrillic "Ш" (SH) into Bond's hand, marking him as a spy in case any other SMERSH agents come across him.  Then he leaves and Bond passes out.

Waking up two days later in a hospital, Bond is nursed to health by Vesper.  They go off on a vacation in France 3 weeks later, and romance blooms.  Bond considers leaving MI6 and marrying Vesper, living a happy life and starting a family with her.  But then a SMERSH agent by the fake name "Adolph Gettler" starts shadowing Vesper, making her super paranoid.  He's a German man with a glass eye patch monocle.  Bond catches her acting suspicious and making secret phone calls, so he questions her.  She insists that she'll tell him everything in the morning.  They make love and Bond retires to his own room.

The next morning, Vesper is found dead in her bed, overdosed on pills.  She left a note for Bond, stating that she was forced to be a double agent for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. SMERSH had kidnapped her boyfriend who served as a pilot for the Polish Royal Air Force, and was blackmailing her to sabotage Bond's mission.  When she fell for Bond, she thought she could run away with him and start over, but Gettler's presence told her she'd never be free, and she was only putting Bond at risk.  Steeling his heart, Bond calls up his liason officer and tells him, "The bitch is dead now."

The film follows this plot pretty closely.  Bond cleans out Le Chiffre, Vesper is then kidnapped, and while in pursuit, Bond wrecks his car when he finds a tied-up Vesper lying in the road.  They're picked up by Le Chiffre's men and brought to a rusty, abandoned ship, where Vesper is led off into another room.  Bond is stripped of his clothes and forced to endure torture to his genitals by Le Chiffre.  Despite clearly suffering, he continues to joke with Le Chiffre about his attempts to "scratch his balls" for him, and Le Chiffre, clearly frustrated, pulls a knife and goes in to castrate Bond.  Before he can, though, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a man who's been silently hanging out in the background of the film, bursts in.  Le Chiffre promises he'll get the money and Mr. White informs him that money isn't as important to their organization as loyalty.  He shoots Le Chiffre in the head and Bond passes out.

I can FEEL this scene every time I watch this film. *Shudders*

Bond wakes up in the hospital later, with Vesper and Mathis.  Le Chiffre had informed Bond earlier that Mathis was actually his friend and sold Bond out, so Bond has Mathis taken away by MI6.  When Bond recovers, he and Vesper run away to Venice together and live happily for a bit off some of the poker winnings.  Bond tenders his resignation from MI6, planning to run away and salvage what's left of his humanity with his love for Vesper.  She goes to the bank to pull some more money and Bond gets a call from M, saying that Vesper still hasn't paid back MI6 the money they staked in the game.  Getting suspicious, Bond calls the bank to find that all the winnings are being withdrawn as they speak.  He tracks down Vesper and finds her exchanging the briefcase of money with a man with one eye and some lackeys.  Bond pursues them and kills everyone, but Vesper locks herself in an elevator, which sinks into the water.  She lets herself drown while Bond desperately tries to save her.

Vesper saying her goodbyes as she drowns

M later informs Bond that Vesper was the one who sold out Bond, not Mathis.  Her boyfriend was kidnapped and she was being blackmailed.  M offers to give Bond some more time, but he asks why would he need more time?  Bond tells M, "The job's done, and the bitch is dead."  Browsing her phone, Bond finds a brief message she left for him, naming Mr. White.  Bond shows up at Mr. White's house and shoots out his knee before introducing himself.  And... the rest will be told in the next film.

Blow out kneecaps first, then introductions

Sadly, there's no Q in this film, nor the next.  Bond's only equipment is a 2006 Aston Martin DBS V12, which comes with a Walther P99 handgun with silencer, and a defibrillator.  He also wins a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from a poker game earlier on in the film, a nod to his classic car from Goldfinger (1964).  This will become his personal car for the rest of the Daniel Craig era.

2006 Aston Martin DBS V12 (left) and 1964 Aston Martin DB5 (right)

Personally, I think Daniel Craig is the best James Bond.  Which is interesting, considering there were protests and boycotts of the series announced when he was picked for the role.  Most people didn't think the blond, waxed Australian man could pull off the character, but all judgment stopped after Casino Royale (2006) released.  He dominated the role, and made the best Bond we've had yet!  I don't think we've had a truly bad Bond throughout this entire franchise, but Daniel Craig just fits the profile best.  I'm a big fan of the original novels, and Daniel Craig's Bond is about as close as we've ever come to matching Ian Fleming's interpretation of Bond, both in personality and in appearance.  I'm really going to miss him after his final Bond film releases later this year.  I don't know how the franchise is going to move on from him.

Daniel Craig's resemblance to Ian Fleming's interpretation of James Bond is uncanny!

The opening theme for this film is one of my favorites, both in music and the opening title sequence.  Breaking from the (usual) tradition of naming the song after the movie's title, this song is called "You Know My Name."  It was performed by Chris Cornell.  The rest of the film's soundtrack was written by David Arnold, who also helped Chris Cornell write the film's theme song.  You can view the opening title sequence here:

RECOMMENDATION:
This is a fantastic re-imagining of the James Bond franchise, starting off strong by telling the original James Bond novel's story.  Everything about this film works so well.  It takes the relatively boring concept of watching people play cards for several days and makes it interesting and enjoyable.  I was on the edge of my seat throughout this film, and to me, this is the pinnacle of James Bond on the big screen.  You have to check this one out!