With the opening of the new James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, the din of cranky naysayers have reached a fever pitch: the car chases don’t make sense, they say, the character is too emotional, where are the spiffy gadgets, blah, fucking blah.
The displeased throng should get over themselves. Quantum’s take on the further adventures of 007 is compact and adroit, engrossing in ways that whet my appetite for another sojourn into a universe filled with explosions and flying glass, where fistfights are lethal and trust can be fatal. None of this film’s dizzying machinations would mean a thing without Daniel Craig. Since his first major film, John Maybury’s Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, this actor has pricked the edges of my conscience. It’s more than sex appeal though: Craig haunts one’s headspace like the greatest stars with a hypnotic mix of charisma, energy and sheer force of talent. As Bond he is, by turns, surly, unpredictable, heartbreaking—and you won’t take your eyes off him, for fear you’ll miss what he’ll do next. This is a 007 for those of us who wondered what lurked behind the martini Lothario’s impossibly cool façade. Want less depth in your secret agent? Blockbuster has DVDs with your name written on them; the rest of us like our Bond shaken…