In all the best ways, mind you.
As is the case with most (recent fare in the past year-plus of) Covid-impacted delayed rollouts, the latest James Bond film – also Daniel Craig’s final go as ‘007’ – was long-awaited.
Fears brewing amid reports of – an overlong runtime, a production marred by a directorial change, with Danny Boyle (“127 Hours,” “Yesterday”) swapped out in favor of Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective,” “Maniac”) three months prior to filming, and Craig’s request for less stunt work being all too detectable were all rendered instantaneously moot with “No Time to Die.”
A film Bond lifers and movie lovers in general can all agree is the quintessential swan song for the first Bond actor in years to actually know he was in the midst of shooting his grand finale while doing so. The same interconnectivity that polarized ‘Spectre’ (2015) viewers is bound to impress the masses drawn to the allure of “No Time to Die’s” conscious lean into the “one last job for one old man” marketing campaign.
Not only does this help the film work as a major-scope farewell bid to Daniel Craig’s Bond, but also to (mostly) the entire crew – with Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), Gareth Mallory / “M” (Ralph Fiennes), Eve Moneypenny (Naomi Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw), Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), and even Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) all returning as well.
Joining the franchise mainstays: Lashana Lynch (“Captain Marvel”) as Nomi, the first female 007 in Bond film history, and Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot,” “Bohemian Rhapsody”) as Lyutsifer Safin. In “No Time to Die,” a retired-yet-again Bond is pulled back out of destination detour duties to confront a globally-charged madman, Malek’s facially and familially-scarred terrorist. Safin holds many an ax to grind with the SPECTRE agents who killed his family, and 007 himself for disrupting his master vision. In typical villain fashion, his grand revenge plot isn’t just limited to those he holds a personal vendetta against, either; he’s hellbent on unleashing biological warfare via an irreversible poison unto millions.
Cast in the wake of his Academy Award win for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in 2018’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Malek’s turn suffices despite inspiring an argument that, as a compelling screen persona, he slightly pales in comparison to that of the film’s heroes. Granted, it’s an even more daunting assignment to attempt outshining “Casino Royale” (2006) and “Skyfall” (2012) villains, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) and Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), respectively. Spoilers aside, the surface stun of a villain not as optically terrifying as the aforementioned pair earning the upper hand in the ways Safin does could be what’s contributed to swaying the early wrap on Malek-as-Safin, according to this reviewer and the consensus alike. Though, perhaps this is the point? Sly is the delicate, damn near tippy-toed charge up the aisle by the sometimes-faceless underdog who no one, not even a spy veteran in Bond, could see coming.
Throughout his pursuit of Safir, Bond must also confront the fading vitality of his perma-loner lifestyle to overcome not just one lost love, but two. Quick to presume Madeleine served him to SPECTRE on a silver platter when visiting the late Vesper’s grave in the two-pronged opening sequence, guilt routinely longs to pour out of the most emotional Bond we’ve ever encountered.
A widely held standout from the film that more than earns its stripes: the limited appearance of Craig’s “Knives Out” battery-mate, Ana de Armas. The 33-year-old “Blade Runner 2049” and “Blonde” actress plays Paloma, a neurotic knockout CIA Agent assisting Bond with his infiltration of a Cubaheld SPECTRE meeting. The sequence serves as one of the film’s several incendiary set-piece inciting incidents.
If the conclusion of Craig’s nobly apt-for-introspection take on Bond could be compared to any other monstrous 21st-century production wielding thematically intimate subject matter, then its unequivocal cinematic cousin is the “X-Men”- canonical “Logan” (2017).
Like the requiem for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, “No Time to Die” trades in the frequency of glamor synonymous with the greater franchise he belongs to in exchange for an endearing, realism-evoking alignment with the current industry tides. When arcs build to cathartic goodbyes, an exclamation point cements legacies in lockstep with the paying customer’s cries.
All that could have been hoped for and more, when tabbing an auteur like Fukunaga, who, interestingly enough, built his early-formed status not in films – but prestige TV. Specifically, in an era where serial “television” is tailored to the binger, thereby bearing more of a resemblance to one single work of cinema – if the viewer so chooses to consume in such a way.
This makes Fukunaga the right man for the task at hand, for with “No Time to Die,” he forces Bond back down to Earth while elevating a similarly patience-tested, then-subsequently rewarded audience heavenly above it.
“There’s a lot of emotion in this Bond. It’s very moving. I bet you’re going to cry. When I watched it, I cried, which is weird because I am in it.” – Léa Seydoux to The Daily Mail, March 2020
In short, what’s at play in “No Time to Die” works because it’s also universally felt elsewhere. In all likelihood, shared by those who comprise any given theater auditorium: the globe-spanning, cerebral resistance of following one’s heart, thanks to our hero – and the women in his life who most often break it.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy suffered not just by second-to-none government spies, but by anyone who’s ever fallen – in and out, or because, of love.
Having been in the popular ether for a year-and- a-half now, Billie Eilish’s already Grammy-winning theme song is an indisputable, genuine hit; a clear Oscar player. Therefore, one should not dare skip off to the bathroom during the equally excellent, visually captivating opening theme itself when and if they’re paying to see the film it belongs to on the big screen.
And you should, because local theaters like Northport’s AMC DINE-IN – via its MacGuffin Bar & Lounge partnership – are welcoming patrons back by serving “The Special 0” (Vodka, Club Soda, Orange Soda, Seltzer) to commemorate the 25th official film fronted by Bond. James Bond.
