Inner Bond

Quantum of Solace dares to crack into 007’s shell | Sam Thielman

Columbia Pictures/MGM

Consider James Bond: liar, killer, rake, spy. What kind of man must he be in order to keep from having a complete mental breakdown? "Everything he touches withers and dies," observes his nemesis Dominic Greene (the wonderfully reptilian Mathieu Amalric). That's the problem that the franchise has been dodging for years, but in Quantum of Solace, the 22nd installment in the venerable series, the answer is just as exciting as anything else 007 has ever done.

The first hint we get that this isn't a conventional action movie comes when M (Judi Dench) first realizes that our hero has dispatched one of his enemies. "He's killed him," she yelps. Immediately, we cut from M's surprised face to Bond's placid one, Daniel Craig's cold blue eyes staring out at the world without pity or remorse. This guy, director Marc Forster wants us to know, is messed up.