SKYFALL

SKYFALL
Written by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ben Wishaw, Ralph Fiennes and Judi Dench

James Bond: Everybody needs a hobby.
Silva: So what’s yours?
James Bond: Resurrection.

James Bond is getting older. His shot is not as on point as it once was; his stride not as fast as in his younger years. In fact, it saddens me to say that his stomach is not quite the washboard it used to be either. There is one notable offshoot to Bond’s decline in prowess though. With age, comes wisdom and with SKYFALL, the 23rd film in the 007 spy series, that wisdom lends its weight to what is without question one of the most exciting and emotionally charged adventures the series has ever seen.

Sam Mendes, the Academy Award winning director of AMERICAN BEAUTY, opens his crack at the Bond series with the man himself, once again embodied by the masterful Daniel Craig, blurred in the background. As he comes into the light and into focus, we direct our attention to his eyes. These are the eyes of a determined man and before either he or we are able to blink, he finds himself in a high-speed bike chase that takes him to the rooftops of Istanbul, overlooking the Grand Bazaar. Why waste time really? This is an action film after all and Mendes has a clear and firm understanding of what the audience wants from their favorite international spy.

Bond has grown into a complex character over the years. In his last outing, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, his complexities got the best of him. Bond was melancholy and the film suffered for it. In SKYFALL he is no less tortuous but Mendes handles the character with much more control and allows the film’s intricate and energetic action sequences to drive the film forward. Without the weight of Bond’s suffering to hold the film back, he commands even more attention and emerges with even greater strength as a result. This is all the more impressive considering what he has to endure at the onset of the film.

Before the first chase is through, Bond is lost and presumed dead. Naturally, the audience knows he isn’t dead, as this would make for an awfully short film. What he goes through should have surely killed him but somehow he is reborn, resurrected even, and all that once haunted him now seems to propel him forward with a more profound momentum than he has had for some time. It is never explained how Bond survives, although I suspect it has something to do with the healing power of Adele’s opening credits theme song, but the fact that he does live on, confirms his innate greatness and grander purpose.

MI6, the British intelligence agency that Bond serves, is under attack. Bond’s longtime boss and sometimes friend, M (Judi Dench), is the actual target of this aggression. Her reign over the agency is being questioned because a top secret list of undercover agents the world over has fallen into the wrong hands. As names leak to the public little by little, confidence in her ability to manage dissipates at the same rate and her methods are called antiquated and quaint. The question as to whether MI6, and subsequently Bond himself, are still relevant is plainly posed and SKYFALL affirmatively reminds everyone that they are far from finished.

Mendes infuses the Bond series with a level of pedigree it rarely sees. Enlisting John Logan to assist Bond screenwriter regulars, Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, raises the personal stakes for the major characters, as all of them have done things that they aren’t necessarily proud of. Bringing on Roger Deakins, arguably the greatest cinematographer working in film today, invigorates the visual look of the film in so many unexpected ways. His work in Shanghai is particularly creative, which not only makes the fight scenes explode off the screen, but also makes the film a serious visual awards contender. And finally, casting actors as talented as Ralph Fiennes (M’s new boss), Ben Wishaw (a welcome return and updated version of classic character, Q) and Javier Bardem (doing what Bardem does best, the bad guy), elevates everyone’s acting game to the next level.

Despite all of this undeniable ability, both in front of and behind the camera, it is Mendes himself who deserves the most applause. His control over this always elaborate, always exciting and always engaging experience is infallible. He can take the film from quiet and tense one moment to loud and intense the next without missing a beat. SKYFALL is something of a cathartic experience almost. Bond is reborn and while his past transgressions inform the man he has become, they do not dictate the man he is going to be going forward. And after people see the newly reincarnated James Bond, they will no doubt be ready to follow him wherever he goes next.

CLOUD ATLAS

CLOUD ATLAS
Written and Directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Wishaw, Xun Zhou and Susan Sarandon.

Vyvyan Ayrs: What is a critic other than one who reads quickly, arrogantly but never wisely?

I must be missing the deeper meaning in CLOUD ATLAS, a film so massive in scope that it required three of the most visually innovative directors working today to tackle it properly. I watched six separate stories span centuries and unfold in spectacular fashion before my eyes, and understood pretty early on into its gargantuan 164 minute running time, that all of these stories, although seemingly completely unrelated, were in fact all connected. I’m sure there has to be so much more symbolically going on underneath all the heavy handed imagery and crushing weight of all the prosthetics used in this film, but if there was, it never surfaced to the movie I was watching. CLOUD ATLAS is surprisingly engaging, and at times extremely satisfying, but it insists you invest in it with every fiber of your being at all times, so it can also be exhausting to get through. And by the time I reached the end of this epic journey, I did not find the revelations to be all that worth the effort.

Where to begin when talking about a story that is meant to demonstrate that all stories are connected throughout time? Honestly, I don’t know and thinking about it is making my head hurt. This is my job though so I must attempt this, no matter how convoluted the directorial team, made up of the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, try to make it for me. A man (Jim Sturgess) takes a stand against slavery and is unknowingly poisoned while on a ship at sea, circa 1850. Another man (Ben Wishaw) writes a sextet that no one will ever hear in 1931. A woman (Halle Berry) tries to take down a nuclear company up to no good in the 70’s. An older gentlemen (Jim Broadbent, the film’s shining star) is tricked into a nursing home prematurely in present day. A genetically engineered woman, known as a fabricant (Xun Zhou), serves food and wonders if there is anything more to life in a dystopian near future (in what I found to be the most compelling of the stories). And finally an old man (Tom Hanks) tells a campfire story in the far away future about when he was young and what it was like to live just after humanity fell. All of this is tied together by the suggestion that each of these stories contains a character that once lived in another time, in another one of these stories.

From what I hear, the book which CLOUD ATLAS was based upon, written by David Mitchell, is even more dense. From what I hear, it also does a better job at showing how cyclical all of our history and connectedness truly is. Having not read it, I cannot confirm this, but a novel does provide a better foundation with which to base this elaborate and ambitious undertaking. The visual adaptation here is more a spectacle than an emotional or meaningful exchange. Even the interconnectedness of it all has to be spelled out to us by having all the actors play several different parts (with varied results). While the three directors are all on the same page visually, seamlessly jumping back and forth between the Wachowski’s future and Tykwer’s past and present, they are all amiss when it comes to tying together the actual feelings that humanize us all throughout time. When they are in the moment, they often get it right, but CLOUD ATLAS, isn’t about just one moment; it is about them all and this is just too big a picture to behold all at once.