Javier Bardem walked onto the screen
right before Intermission.
Bond movies are formula films, that's
part of their USP. They have broken the formula with 1. A lead actor
who looks like a thug with two expressions in his armoury. 2. No
gadgets and too much reliance on brawn.
Is it Sam Mendes' fault that we have a
slow dance for the first half of the movie when we wanted that
spectacular opening sequence? Remember the first shot in GoldenEye
(where Pierce Brosnan gave us the best Bond with his beauty,
toughness and vulnerability)? That was a lesson on how to make an
impact, not Craig's endless fight with the bad guy on top of a train.
Another shot of Craig giving chase on the SAME ROOFTOP in Turkey we
saw in 'Taken 2' made me worry about the budget for this film.
I think it's Barbara Broccoli's fault
for tampering with genius in the first place. She chose Craig, who
wears no expression throughout 'Skyfall' – except when the word
itself is spoken to him and his eyes change. Then Mendes comes along
and we are deprived of so much acting skill that we almost don't
realize it since all the actors seem to be suffering from the same
ailment. Then comes Javier. But even his long entrance is too long,
his monologue too tender – until it hits you. Tender? He then runs
his hand over Craig's body in the slowest, scariest shot and you
think: Genius is back. But it takes a long time coming, and only
because you have an actor in Javier who will always transcend his
material slash director. The smirks, the false solicitude, the crazed
focus of “What have they done to you?” whispered to Judi Dench
when he has come to kill her, it's breathtaking.
Berenice Marlohe gets the formula back
on track as the hot chick who has a moment in the sack with the spy
and then gets killed off. The black dress we first see her in makes
more of an impact than she does; at moments she is fascinating to
watch, at others she is as hazy as a sepia photograph. She also
doesn't have the body required for the role, large hips and fat
ankles? Come on.
Both Bond and M are horrible people in
'Skyfall'. She lets her agents down time and again, he watches people
die. Now I don't know about you, but that does not hero material
make. And this is supposed to be a Bond movie?
The one special effects shot where a
train plows down on Bond missed the mark because it had no people in
it, thereby through one careless inattention to detail leaving us
indifferent instead of gasping in our seats. The young Q brings no
kickass new toys, (I know we're backtracking but may I say again,
this is a Bond movie), and the entrance of Miss Moneypenny is equally
daft: She was never black.
The last shot in the house on a
Scottish moor where the Aston Martin getting shot up finally moves
Bond to violence is almost tragi-comic.
But in the end, it's a great film
because it has character. It reveals how ruthless government can be.
It has bad guys who are good and good guys who are bad. It has those
gorgeous sweeps of location that move you to sighs. It has the
wonderful title song from Adele. It has Javier. It has Javier. It has
Javier.
