No Time To Die(2D, English)
Starring Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear and Ralph Fiennes
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Rating: *** ½
So even Bond is after all a victim of human frailties. Getting down from his high horse of invincibility Daniel Craig’s Bond has never seemed more vulnerable.And that’s what makes this Bond film the best in years.It is fun but somber, sleek but deep, slushy but immersive .
No Time To Die gives us no time to breathe. The action, as is the won’t in the James Bond series, is relentless.And very very captivating. In fact the stunts in the Bond films have always reminded me of carefully choreographed dance performances. If you don’t die because you are in it, you die because you are privy to such unfathomable creative violence.
This time Bond begins when he is at peace with his ladylove Madeline(a strangely detached Léa Seydoux) in an idyllic Italian hamlet, where we know from experience silence is only a precursor to prolonged mayhem. The first action sequence doesn’t disappoint. It is heart-in-the-mouth fun. And that’s the mood Bond chooses for most of the rest of the 2 hours 40 minutes of pulsating plot ingredients.
While the testosterone level remains high from first to last it is as lucid as the living daylights that James is no longer the same. I’d say he seems fatigued. But I can’t because he’s played by the timeless Daniel Craig. Even if the very talented director Cary Joji Fukunaga(he is bound to bring Bond back) must have instructed Craig to “act tired” there is a certain agility underlining the exhaustion that makes Bond, this time, more human and yet more heroic that ever before.
I can’t say I held my breath through all the action pieces. Some of the majestic mayhem was a mock-tale: they mocked the very existence of the Bond franchise. And yet while Craig’s 007 fades there is a rush of renewability as a new young eager recruit, who is black and female, is ready to take over as 007.
All this leaves No Time To Die with almost no time to give Daniel Craig’s 007 a suitable send-off. Just in the nick of time, the director negotiates through the winding car chases, to slow down the wheels of fortune and bring about the most moving finale we have seen in a Bond film.
I was deeply sorrowed by Daniel Craig’s departure. Bond will never be the same again. But isn’t that what life and art is about it? And not even James Bond is exempt from the exigencies of existence.
No Time To Die is a great watch. But not a great film. It stumbles at some crucial plot points. There is one particularly odd juncture where a 3-year old girl(who means the world to Bond) is kidnapped by the arch-villain who simply lets her run off when he runs out of ways to keep her with him.
Ah, the arch-villain! So much said about the over-rated Egyptian actor Rami Malek. He comes in late and brings nothing to the table. Malek’s villainy is a huge letdown. But No Time To Die survives Malek.It is the end of 007 as we know him. For many of us, it is the end of an era.RIP,James. We drink to your unvanquished heroism.