QUANTUM OF SOLACE

U.K. - U.S.A. | 2008 Directed by Marc Forster Starring Daniel Craig Olga Kurylenko Mathieu Amalric Color | 106 Minutes | PG-13 Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) MGM/Fox Home Entertainment

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Single-disc edition

Also available on Blu-ray disc

Ian Fleming's Complete James Bond Short Stories on Audio CD

		Review by Brian Lindsey

8     6   10 = Highest Rating

Casino Royale Part Deux.     Taking its title (and nothing else) from an Ian Fleming short story, Quantum of Solace picks up exactly where the smash 2006 James Bond film left off... although at first this isn't readily apparent. Eschewing the traditional 'gun barrel stroll' opening, the film begins with a brutal, adrenaline-pumping car chase. There is no set-up, no exposition — the music swells, a montage of flashing, disjointed images sets the stage and, with a howling roar of engines, we're suddenly thrust right into the thick of it. Anonymous machinegun-wielding thugs, intent on turning 007 (Daniel Craig) into Swiss cheese, are in hot pursuit of Bond's Aston Martin DBS along a dangerous, winding mountain road. Apart from being armored, Bond's car lacks any of the gee-whiz gadgets — smoke discharger, tire shredder, rocket launcher, etc. — which in past films gave him the edge. Here he has only his driving skills and a well-timed submachine gun burst to help win the demolition derby.     It's a ballsy way to start a Bond film.     Victorious, 007 drives the battered Aston to an MI6 safe house in the city of Siena, Italy. He pops the trunk to reveal an unwilling passenger: the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), whom Bond shot in the leg and captured at the very end of Casino Royale. He's to be interrogated by Bond and MI6 chief M (Judi Dench) outside the protection of British law, in hopes of learning more about the shadowy organization he works for. They don't get very far. "The first thing you should know about us is that we have people everywhere," White boasts, and at that very moment M's own personal bodyguard, Mitchell (Glenn Foster), pulls a pistol and opens fire in the room. M is almost killed just as Bond springs into action, causing Mitchell to flee with Bond hot on his heels. A tense — if much too frantically edited — foot chase across the rooftops of Siena ensues, culminating in a battle between Mitchell and Bond as they dangle and swing from the scaffolding of an old church being renovated. It's kill or be killed, and naturally 007 comes out on top. (It's good to see the old Walther PPK back in vogue.) When Bond returns to the safe house he's told that, during the confusion, Mr. White managed to escape. With Mitchell eliminated and White on the loose, any chance to gain information about the organization that compromised Vesper and assassinated Le Chiffre would seem gone. (Vesper? Le Chiffre? If you're not familiar with or don't remember the characters and events of Casino Royale, then you're SOL. Quantum of Solace takes the atypical path — certainly for a Bond flick — of the true sequel; there is no recap for the enlightenment of those who didn't see the previous installment. Apparently this rubbed more than a few folks the wrong way, especially film critics who aren't particularly enamored of the franchise.)     There's only the faintest of leads to go on. Mitchell's status as a deep-cover traitor is confirmed when cash in the dead bodyguard's possession turns out to be a secretly "tagged" bill from Le Chiffre's money laundering operation. M is alerted by her technical section that some of this cash has just been used by a Mr. Slate to pay for lodgings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Bond makes directly for the Caribbean island and, while snooping in Slate's hotel room, is jumped by his quarry. In the most brutal (and certainly quickest) fight scene of the franchise to date, 007 kills Slate — in about 20 seconds flat — by stabbing him in the throat and leg and letting him bleed to death. (Roger Moore-style karate chops just don't cut the mustard anymore!) From the contents of his briefcase Bond learns that Slate — a professional killer — was hired to liquidate a beautiful woman named Camille (Olga Kurylenko), to whom Slate was posing as a geologist employed by her rich boyfriend. Said boyfriend is environmental philanthropist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric), who wants Camille dead for prying into his affairs. Why is she so interested in his Bolivian project?     At first Bond isn't concerned about that, as he concentrates on dogging Greene's movements wherever he goes. Somehow this man is connected to Mr. White's organization and Bond needs to know exactly how. This leads 007 to an opera performance in Bregenz, Austria, where he gets a glimmer of a stunning conspiracy — stunning in its breath and scope. Greene is a high-ranking member of Quantum, an international cabal of elite politicians and business tycoons whose apparent goal is to become the secret puppet masters behind a New World Order of their own design. Whatever Quantum has planned for Bolivia is part of Greene's portfolio...     On opening weekend I left the theater feeling nonplused and somewhat disappointed. What had I just seen? The "Bourne-ification" of James Bond appeared to have been taken too far, with the epileptic editing of the action scenes (especially in the film's first half) rendering them almost incomprehensible. I didn't have a problem following the plot, as many seem to have had, but QOS moves at such a blistering pace that there wasn't any time for events to resonate or sink in. The film, directed by drama specialist Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, The Kite Runner), seemed to have fumbled the terrific set-up provided by CR.     What a difference the DVD makes.     For me, a lifelong series fan, this is the first Bond film that substantially improves with repeat viewings. Indeed, this may well be the first 007 adventure to play better on home video than it ever could at the multiplex. Brought down to size (a 56-inch TV in my case), the frenetic action is much, much easier to follow. I've come to appreciate what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish with all the flash-cut editing, which is an attempt to engage the viewer on a visceral 'you are there' level — something that's never really been done in a Bond film before. The opening car chase is perhaps the best example. Combined with pulse-pounding music and sound effects, this approach can work beautifully. But it can also fail, as it most notably does in the Siena tunnel/rooftop chase. That particular set-piece — which could, and should, have been a series highlight — is undermined by the almost ridiculous brevity of the edits, many not even lasting a second, in a much too visually cluttered environment. It's easy to see why some folks were disoriented (and thus frustrated) by it rather than thrilled.     Beyond the whiplash editing of the action scenes, the biggest complaints about QOS concerned the script. For a rush job — contributor Paul Haggis turned in the final draft literally hours before the start of the 2008 Writer's Strike — I think it turned out quite well. Contrary to what some have said, the plot is not at all complex or convoluted... but neither is it spoon-fed to the audience. Unlike virtually all the previous Bonds, QOS demands that you actually pay attention to what's going on and what's being said. The film barrels forward at such a headlong pace that if certain key lines of dialog are missed, one could be utterly lost. (Why the heck is 007 suddenly in Haiti? Why is the CIA trying to stop him in Bolivia?) Plot points and character details are not necessarily hammered home; instead they are left for the viewer to piece together. (Camille, for example, never directly explains the burn scars on her back, but you'll know why she has them if you've been following along.) I very much like the way a more realistic view of geopolitics is brought to the table, as is the unhealthy nexus between multinational corporations and intelligence agencies. During the Cold War you'd never have seen Bond and CIA buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) exchanging jibes about superpower imperialism in the Third World.     Director Forster, while fully conscious of helming a commercial franchise film, nonetheless brings arthouse sensibilities to its visual style, resulting in a Bond movie unlike any of the 21 that preceded it. Dennis Gassner's production design is in turns slick, gritty and futuristic; QOS is one of composer David Arnold's best scores for the franchise to date, with a particularly 'Barryesque' piece setting the opera scene. The cast is uniformly excellent. Even sexy Ukrainian model-turned-actress Olga Kurylenko holds her own as the unconventional "Bond Girl" Camille. Mathieu Almaric's villain, too, is unconventional for a Bond foe — a creepy corporate weasel who tries to outsmart 007 rather than relying on muscle-bound henchmen. Gemma Arterton is devilishly cute in a brief role as Bond's one night stand (and who suffers the penalty in an homage to Goldfinger); it's wonderful to see Giancarlo Giannini return as world-weary retired spy Mathis. As for Daniel Craig, he proves with this second performance that he simply IS James Bond... That debate is as dead as Mr. Slate.

Offering a 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer in DTS-HD 5.1 Surround, the disc's A/V quality, especially aural, is absolutely superb — I wouldn't expect anything less from a blockbuster studio release such as this. There are additional audio tracks in French and Spanish; subtitles are available in a variety of languages. Extras on the single-DVD edition are limited to the teaser/theatrical trailers and a music video for the Jack White-Alicia Keys main titles duet "Another Way To Die". (Edgy and raw for a Bond theme, I didn't care for the song at first but it has subsequently grown on me.) A two-disc version of Quantum of Solace, boasting an assortment of HBO Behind the Scenes-style featurettes (but no audio commentary), is also available, as is a Blu-ray edition. 3/31/09

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