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NO TIME TO DIE
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga Cast: Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Billy Magnussen, Christoph Waltz, David Denick, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, Lisa-Dorah Sonnet MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:43 Release Date: 10/8/21 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 7, 2021 Call it formula or a set of rules, but there are certain expectations that come with every new James Bond adventure. Co-writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die breaks a big rule—perhaps the most important one of the almost 60-year-old franchise—by the end of this escapade, the final one for actor Daniel Craig in the role. It feels necessary for this particular iteration of the British spy. Craig's tenure as Bond has been inconsistent and uncertain, in terms of both the movies themselves and who this version of the famous character is meant to be. He started as a brooding brute, transformed into a generic action hero, gave us a few flashes of the cheeky humor that has defined for the spy for decades, and occasionally allowed the tough-skinned and seemingly indestructible guy to show some physical and emotional vulnerability. Whatever Craig's flaws and virtues in the role may have been, this installment has the actor appearing freer to do whatever he wants to do with the role (Craig smiles more in this movie than he probably has in every other of his entries combined). That gives us a number of reasons to appreciate the Bond he has been—as well as to wonder what kind of Bond he could have been. Part of that freedom comes from the plot, which mostly follows a Bond who has retired from Her Majesty's Secret Service. He has had enough of the pain, the loss, and the general feeling of doom that has made up his career. Too many of his loved ones have died. Too many chances for happiness had to be bypassed. Too many people want him and those closest to him dead. If the previously unprecedented sense of continuity in this sequence of Bond movies—after many decades of standalone adventures—has seemed a bit jarring, it does pay off to some extent here. The most noteworthy element of the screenplay (written by the director, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is that it does, finally and decisively, give us a term to define Craig's Bond. All of the previous versions of the character could be categorized in some way—the first and defining one, the one-timer, the goofy one, the hard-edged one, the dashing one. From its extended prologue on, this movie highlights Craig's variation of Bond as the most unexpected: the tragic one. Indeed, the entire movie begins with the first—and definitely not the last—example of the filmmakers bending the formula/expectations/rules of these movies. It begins, not with any kind of action spectacle, but with a quiet and mournful flashback, explaining the history of Bond's most recent love interest, that jumps forward in time to Bond and Madeline (Léa Seydoux) enjoying a holiday in Italy. This is also, of course, where our hero lost his first, great love and the place where she's buried. Trying to let go of that grief once and for all, the usual action sequence breaks out, leading Bond to leave behind another love and, apparently, his entire life. Five years later, while living a remote existence in Jamaica, Bond is called back into action from a request by his friend and CIA counterpart Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright). The plot involves a technological weapon that can specifically target a person, a family, or an entire group's genes. It's mostly an excuse to pull Bond back into his old world and ways—re-uniting with the likes of M (Ralph Fiennes) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw), in scenes that feel a bit too lighthearted considering the devastating stakes at play, as well as finding that his agent number has been re-assigned to Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Eventually, he also has to confront the evil Spectre (briefly), Blofeld (Christoph Waltz, once again underutilized), new and underwhelming villain Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), and Madelyn, who has a couple of surprises waiting for Bond. The screenplay is so busy tying up the loose ends of the previous movies that its own plot sometimes feels like an afterthought. The most effective scenes and moments here have little to do with that plot, which is the usual international hunt, bursts of action (Fukunaga does attempt to add some sense of realism, both in scenario—a game of cat-and-mouse in the forest and a stairwell battlefield—and in his long-take technique), and a climax set at the talkative villain's island fortress. Instead, those moments are the jovial scenes between the series' regular actors, as well as the romance between Bond and Madeleine that tries to—and almost does—compensate for how shallow it seemed in the previous movie. Mostly, though, those moments come from Craig, allowing Bond to be charming, funny, physically adept, and more emotionally exposed, on a more frequent and consistent level, than we've ever seen the character. It's likely no coincidence that, from Bond's first scenes (leaving behind two of his great loves, at a grave and in an embrace filled with heartbreak), the story more or less leads to a series of farewells. It's for Craig, of course, but it also has been the central emotional course of this Bond's term. Those moments—especially the big one here—are daring. The rest of No Time to Die simply doesn't match them. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, brief
strong language and some suggestive material)
