No Time To Die — a last goodbye to Daniel Craig
An almost 2 year delay of the finale instillment of the Craig Bond area, and so finally No Time To Die is here.
Admittedly, I have a complicated relationship to Bond films. I’ve seen them all. Back in the day when watching actual television was a thing I used to watch the old ones starring them all from Connery to Moore to Dalton to Brosnan, every Saturday. One memorable new years they aired all the ones they could fit into a day and while I can’t remember how many it actually was, it was definitely many. So, yes Bond holds a special place in my heart and when Daniel Craig signed on to take on the mantle, it was exciting to have my own Bond that was for my generation, much like my parents had previously.
Now, much has been said about the Bond franchise in recent years, maybe most from the leading man himself who has on many memorable occasions expressed his dislike of the character. Possibly his most controversial statement of it was when he very eloquently said “Now? I’d rather … slash my wrists,” than play Bond again. Or his continuous comments about Bond being a misogynist , which admittedly is probably true. Look, I actually like his frank statements about this character, Daniel Craig’s always felt self aware enough to recognise the problematic aspects of Bond and it’s kind of refreshing isn’t it?
Anyway, No Time To Die is Craig’s swansong to the franchise and while Spectre was supposed to be his last, that film really didn’t feel fitting for a man who changed the trajectory of Bond movies for this decade. This is without a doubt a much better film for Craig to leave his mark on and go out on a high with.
So, much can be said about Bond and I agree with most of these things. No Time To Die is no exception when it comes to outdated tropes and story arcs that have lived past its expiry dates, because it is at its core a Bond film. It’s no excuse but it’s a franchise that has not managed to keep up with the same pace as society has in recent years when it comes to how we talk about action films. And it’s not surprising, Bond is at its core an archetype of the patriotic, British macho hero, a character arisen from a particular type of stoicism and inspired by the cold war male ideal that has at this points lost its appeal. He is a little bit of a relic, a representative of a bygone area which the previous films have had to drag behind itself, ever since Craig signed on.
This was always going to pose massive challenges, particularly when looking to reinvent the swaggery agent with a license to kill. Though Craig has had many years to work this out and what’s come across is a more damaged and broken version of the character than any before. This film strips back the layers even further of who Bond is and what happens here is that a character we’ve thought we’ve seen it all with, instead offers us even more. This film undeniably feels different, it feels exciting and the last entry of the Craig area is now imbued with a freshness it hasn’t managed to capture since Casino Royale.
So, No Time To Die sees Bond, years after putting Blofeld in prison and enjoying his retirement in an Italian village that looks unreal, suddenly forced to come back to a life he left behind and face to face with a new villain, Safin and yet again save the world.
It’s hard not to immediately notice the lavish locations of this film, the luxurious cars, the showy dresses and fancy suits along with a few shaken Martinis to go along. This time Craig is yet again joined by Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Monneypenny, Ben Wishaw’s brainy Q and Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann. New to the cast this time around is Lashanna Lynch as a 007 agent with much swagger on her own and the adorable yet capable Paloma played by Ana de Armas. She is possibly the highlight of the film and her and Craig together on screen offer a dazzling playful chemistry where Bond’s age yet again becomes the but of the joke. It’s so fun to watch.
In many ways this is a film much more grounded in humanity and emotions that what we’re used to. It’s funnier too, Bond’s sarcasm has been turned up to the maximum this time around and during its runtime of 2 1/2 hours, which is possibly a little too long, it manages to develop most of its characters throughout that time. It’s nice to see it finally confirmed that Ben Wishaw’s Q is canonically queer, something that has been circulating around since he was first introduced in Skyfall. I enjoyed Lea Sydeoux’s performance of Madeleine a lot more than in Spectre, though I can’t make up my mind whether she’s a typical sexualised Bond girl or if she’s actually a character capable of handling her own. Honestly, she’s probably a mixture of both which is why I both sympathise with her and find it cringeworthy to watch at the same time.
Safin, or Lyutsifer Safin. Yep read that name one more time out loud for me. Sounds suspiciously like Lucifer Satan to me. God what a name… I like Rami Malek and he comes across as creepy from time to time on screen. Though what doesn’t escape me is that he feels very much like a passionate plantmother gone haywire who is suddenly set on word domination, and that just feels bit MEH to be honest. He does this because he can, which is a good way to just be like ‘yes some men just want to watch the world burn’ and are terrible and angry and small, which fair, a lot of male villains are. It’s just that in a film with pretty strong character development across the board he feels pretty weak and uninspiring. His connection to Bond feels minimal and as a parting adversary to Daniel Craig’s last performance it feels unoriginal.
It is though at the core Daniel Craig’s film, there is no doubt about that. Daniel Craig’s always managed to capture something very raw with his Bond (it’s probably those blue eyes), the contradictions of the character that he carries effortlessly displayed here beautifully, breathing new air into the character. As the character has been so ruthless and closed off in many ways, it’s almost disarming to see Bond’s vulnerability laid forward for the viewer in No Time To Die. He’s a lot more emotional for a man who’s made a career out of killing, his inability to control his rash and impulsive side causing him trouble on a few occasions in the film while simultaneously prompting the audience to feel sympathetic to the man running on borrowed time. It’s honestly refreshing to see dimensions to a character we think we know.
I will leave it at this though, because I don’t want to dissect this film too much and it’s starting to feel harder as I try to avoid the spoilers. As a last thing, it’s impressive that after this long to somehow manage to tweak this franchise into something that feels much more exciting than it’s done in ages, hats off!
I’m happy that this was the film Craig gets to go out on, because it’s not a bad hill to stand on and look at ones legacy.
Thank you Mr. Bond, until we meet again.
