‘Quantum of Solace’ Offers a Smidgen of Comfort, a Wallop of Action

Marc Forster proves ideally suited to direct the film. Meticulous, precise, and design-oriented – to a fault, as past films like “Stay” have shown, but right on target here – Forster here sets off a noisy, exciting choreography of big action scenes that could very well make “Quantum of Solace” one of the best action films in recent memory, punctuated by spot-on characters like Jeffrey Wright’s CIA man Felix Leiter and Giancarlo Giannini’s sage Rene Mathis. And the sets are eye-popping marvels, especially an opera set consisting of a giant eye and the classy wood-industrial modern architecture of a luxury hotel. But, and credit goes to a script developed by Paul Haggis of “Million Dollar Baby” fame along with Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, Forster is just as meticulous in letting the film pay attention to the characters, beginning with Bond himself. While Craig has the ruggedly handsome looks and physicality that makes Bond such a formidable, relentless force, it’s the underlying psychology Craig brings to the role that appeals. Far from being the idealized hero every woman wants to bed and every man wants to be, Craig’s Bond is an afflicted man, resolute but blood-stained. His actions, though clothed in appeals to duty and the greater good, are the definition of collateral damage. The medication of choice is alcohol, sleep is never peaceful, and friendship is a foreign place.

And Now, for Fans of Subtleties

In this lies a rejoinder to Roger Moore’s understandable dismay at the brutal, gritty violence that has infused today’s James Bond films — a reflection of a brutal world view: at least the violence doesn’t occur in a purely exploitative moral vacuum. Dame Judi Dench – M for Magnificent – doesn’t simply bark orders, but has a richly ambiguous relationship with Bond that is quasi-parental, quasi-friendlike, and cautious. When Bond is too busy acting the blunt instrument, she is the far-from-naïve voice of consequence. Whether this surprising moral complexity flashes the pan or will be a defining feature of this 21st century Bond remains to be seen in the next film, in whether or not Bond evolves in both his methods and motives.

There’s a definite evolution in the mature treatment given to the condescendingly nicknamed “Bond women.” For all that Gemma Arterton’s oddly-attired Agent Fields indulges in Bond’s charms – and why not? There’s no misogyny in two people, two consenting adults, having a good time together – Olga Kurylenko’s smoking Camille is a giant leap above Jinx. As passionate for revenge but detached from the normalities as Bond, Camille is notable not only for being part of a blueballing that ups the heat more so than indulging the usual Bond dalliances – but for a psyche as paradoxically tough and fractured as 007 himself. In the stuff of a psych major thesis, sex is not the language of choice between two broken, but determined, people so much as death.

The title still sucks, though. So much that I’ve nicknamed the film Smidgen of Comfort. But there’s apparently more to the title than big words. Quantum is quite possibly the name of the mysterious SPECTRE-like organization behind LeChiffre and Vesper Lynd in “Casino Royal,” and now villain Dominic Greene (Amalric). In the grand tradition of always leaving ‘em wanting more, “Quantum of Solace” leaves us wanting more, and then some.