A review of Skyfall

Skyfall begins with a brilliant rooftop chase in Istanbul where James Bond chases and fights a bad guy which then stretches to the top of a train. The newest Bond movie starring Daniel Craig has the Oscar Winning Director Sam Mendes at the helm. If you remember, this is the guy who made a plastic bag dancing in the wind look hauntingly beautiful in his movie ‘American Beauty’. Bond has been transformed.  And we find an unusual depth that we don’t generally associate with a typical James Bond movie.

All’s not well with MI6 which is under attack. M (Judie Dench) is asked to retire by Gareth Mallory (Ralf Fiennes) the new chairman of intelligence and security who is to oversee the period of transition. Bond himself is shown to be struggling, with a salt and pepper stubble and finding it hard to keep up physically.  

Mendes’s Bond is not the usual Bond. The movie has a dark edge throughout and as the movie gets underway, Bonds stiff upper-lip starts trembling. He is real, he is human and we are even shown glimpses into his so far unspoken childhood.  We hear M reciting Shakespeare and see Bond observing the Scottish highlands in a surreal scene. This is definitely not the old stuff we are used to.

Javier Bardem as the villain is superb; I think his first class acting has perhaps created the best Bond villain ever. Judie Dench as M comes up with an excellent performance and is the real Bond girl in the movie . The other two Bond girls fail to impress. Quartermaster Q makes a comeback and I loved his new avatar. Ralf Fiennes, I think, can never disappoint me ever. 

Skyfall is an exquisitely shot movie and there would be very little one can complain about whether it be direction, story or performances. Daniel Craig perhaps is one of the best looking Bonds ever, maybe the best ever. Nevertheless, I came out from the movie theatre with a sense of loss. It looks as if I will never be able to unwind and relax watching a Bond movie. Gone are the days when everything was safe in the hands of the super spy James Bond when he wined and dined and pursued beautiful women while he dealt with menacing villains with ease and composure.  

Go watch Mendes’s Skyfall if you like to watch a well-made, emotionally charged movie, rather than a two dimensional action movie.