Directed by: Martin Campbell
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale. (Courtesy photo)

James Bond has returned, and the question is not whether Casino Royale is a good Bond fi lm. The question is whether it’s the best Bond fi lm ever made. The answer, of course, is that there isn’t a “best” Bond. The 43-year-old franchise has been through enough incarnations and permutations that it would be like comparing martinis with Aston Martins. But this 21st entry is a shot of adrenalin to the heart of the fading Bond dinosaur. Daniel Craig was a bold choice by the producers, who fi nally accepted what everyone, including Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and former Bond Pierce Brosnan, had been telling them; James Bond needed to be reborn. He has been, and without gadgets, puns, dumb luck, or world-domination issues. Even the worst Bond fi lms have something to offer, if only in parts. And even the better ones usually work as parts more than whole fi lms. When was the last time a Bond film held up from the opening gun-barrel view to the closing embrace? For Your Eyes Only? Goldfinger? Never? Casino Royale, in spite of a somewhat unnecessary fourth act, is a real movie. Even if the plot gets hairy, the themes stay true. Yes, this is a movie with actual themes.

It’s about a rough-edged spy learning to become the ideal. He’s reckless, fl appable, and too arrogant for his own good. His blood is still three-parts ice water, one-part dry martini. But he’s somewhat recognizable as a human being. In another departure from the recent Bond, Casino Royale is neatly plotted so there’s some actual spying. But there’s also a lot of mayhem. First Bond chases an operative through a Madagascar construction site. Sebastien Foucan, who helped create Parkour, plays the operative. If you’ve seen footage of men leaping about Paris like a collection of Jackie Chans, you’ve seen Parkour. Foucan is a physical marvel, and the scene is, quite simply, the best action scene ever committed to a Bond fi lm. From there, Bond heads to the Bahamas to learn more about a mysterious international Banker named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). It’s here that Bond engages in another great sequence, attempting to stop a bomb attack at the airport. Then we get to the meat of the story, Le Chiffre’s high-priced poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Bond is the best card player in the agency, so M (Judi Dench) reluctantly sends him in. He’s joined by Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the agency’s accountant. She’s there to monitor his funds, but whom are we kidding here? The poker game is a doozy, with a few violent diversions during the breaks. Somehow writers Purvis, Wade, and Paul Haggis manage to insert a blossoming romance between the cards and the carnage. But the end of the game is hardly the end of Bond’s troubles. Ahead are some double-crosses, some very uncomfortable torture, and a couple of extra endings.

The casting of blond-haired, blue-eyed Craig (Road to Perdition, Munich) caused much dismay among Bond afi cionados. He took a beating on the Internet before ever getting to make his case on screen. But if you’re not won over during the opening origin sequence, or the incredible Parkour chase, you will be by the time he steps off the plane in the Bahamas and struts across the tarmac. Craig oozes danger. He’s also the fi rst Bond ever who actually looks good running. By the time he chooses to move on from the role, Craig will have taken his place next to, just below, or just above Sean Connery. Sacrilege, I know, but he’s that good. Eva Green (The Dreamers) is also quite dazzling as the enigmatic Vesper Lynd. Green has the voice of an intelligent adult, and the sad eyes of a frightened little girl. Like Craig, she benefi ts from the superior script. Vesper does not melt in the presence of 007, but rather makes a pretty nifty foil. By the time she gives herself over to him, it feels like anything but a conquest. Dench is the only on-screen bridge to the previous Bonds, and her presence is welcome as always. Mikkelsen, a hugely popular Danish actor recently seen in the American film King Arthur, is genuinely unsettling as the blood-weeping Le Chifre. Giancarlo Giannini lends fine support as Italian field agent Mathis, and Jeffrey Wright (Syrianna) offers promise of a bright future as CIA operative Felix Leiter.

Martin Campbell already revived the Bond franchise with Brosnan’s 1995 christening GoldenEye. He’s one of the few directors working who knows how to stage a good action scene (The Mask of Zorro). But Campbell also navigates this Bond through unfamiliar emotional obstacles, and for the most part he pulls it off. Here’s hoping he stays on for the next installment. And let’s hope the writing maintains this level of integrity. Roger Moore was a charmer, and Pierce Brosnan had the style. Both did their best with the material given them. But we never became engaged—we certainly never worried about them. Craig’s Bond is a much more complicated man, and we’re now fully invested in his future missions. Not to see the next global destructo-ray, or the latest watch/garrote. We actually want to see how this Bond evolves.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.