Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008)
Director: Marc Forster
Actors: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric

Synopsis: James Bond (Daniel Craig) chases down a nefarious ‘environmentalist’, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is supporting a coup in Bolivia to gain access to the water and oil supplies there.

Review: On second viewing, I’m actually more inclined than ever to give the benefit of doubt to Quantum of Solace. Perhaps unfairly maligned in relation to its more colourful and emotive cousins of the Daniel Craig era, Casino Royale and Skyfall, Quantum of Solace is, in some respects, the more cerebral and challenging piece of work.

It’s like a really arty action movie, and there are some nice touches from Marc Forster – in particular the scene where during a grand opera in Bregenz, Austria, Bond outs the sinister Quantum organisation who are conducting a surreptitious conference there. In fact, the whole conception of the villainous Quantum organisation is rather ingenious. Making them an insidious, faceless executive – a remove from the macabre SPECTRE of the Cold War – really works, particularly when a British Secret Service man who has joined their ranks tries to kill M, and in mousy environmentalist’ Dominic Greene, who is able to ‘talk shop’ with Bolivian junta and CIA agents, while at the same time furthering his aim of gaining control of Bolivia’s prodigious water (and oil) supply.

Admittedly, the film is at times a little too actiony and industrial, and, though a huge admirer of Craig’s stint as Bond, there is quite simply very little charm or ease in this particular instalment. Not that I hark back to the days of Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan, but if Craig and the producers/screenwriters can shift Bond a touch more toward the Connery conception, then they’ll have a stellar 007. (April 2013)