Quantum of Solace

    

“I don’t think the dead care about vengeance”-James Bond (Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace)

A friend of mine asked me the day after the trailer for this film debuted, “What the hell is a Quantum of Solace?”  It was a bold choice to pick this title of a Fleming short story, which was one of the few Bond tales that has no espionage.  In it the unnamed Governor of the Bahamas passes a couple of hours after a dinner party telling Bond a story of a British man who falls in love with and marries an airline stewardess.  The stewardess has an affair that she flaunts and the man, initially wrecked by this, later devises a cold revenge.  Fleming goes on to describe that they do not have a “Quantum of Solace”, which is a mathematical formula to designate a level of respect, friendship and love between two parties.  If a quantum of solace is high then the relationship is successful.   If the Quantum of Solace is at zero the relationship has no hope.

Spoilers below for Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace

Given where Casino Royale left off I think the title is an inspired choice but its significance is never explained to the audience.  Thus, viewers who were unfamiliar with Fleming's work were probably confused by the title, apart from the naming of Quantum as the villainous organization.  M at the end of film asks Bond “Did you find what you were looking for” but to the audience they probably though she meant closure.  Mathis would have been the perfect person to explain Bond’s Quantum of Solace to him and the audience.  However Quantum of Solace still, with James Bond as popular as ever when it was released, still opened and performed very strongly.

James Bond, at the beginning of this film, thinks his Quantum of Solace with Vesper is at zero because she lied to him in Casino Royale.   Quantum of Solace is, as much as a globetrotting action film with a womanizing secret agent can be, a film about mourning.  James Bond had a chance at a happy life and it was ripped away from him in two ways (the woman he loved betrayed him-in order to save his life-and then she died before he could confront her about it).  In the book Casino Royale one of the final lines is Bond saying he will go after the hand holding the whip.  In this film, Bond does just that by actively going after the organization Quantum and in doing so comes across a plot to destabilize the Bolivian government and then hold the new government to ransom by controlling its water supply.

Casino Royale ended with the possibility of going one of two ways.  Bond had captured Mr. White, the nefarious face of the mysterious organization behind Le Chiffre, that films’ main villain.  The Bond theme played and the viewer could assume that by capturing Mr. White Bond had effectively put them out of business.  The new adventure could be a fresh start and make no reference to the events in Casino Royale.  The Bond films generally are stand alone adventures that are unrelated.  In the past when Bond had suffered a similar loss in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service the next film, Diamonds Are Forever, only addressed it obliquely which I felt was a lost dramatic opportunity (though probably a good business decision since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service had not performed as well as previous films).  Here, probably since Casino Royale was so well received (ironically enough following the same model as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a more down to earth film that introduced a new Bond actor after an over the top entry starring an extremely popular Bond actor) the producers opted to follow the story thread of Bond processing the loss.  Bond would almost like to believe that Vesper just betrayed him out of malice but he knows, that on some level, that Quantum likely forced her hand.  However since Bond rarely talks about his feelings the filmmakers have the challenge of communicating this through actions, other characters, the score and most importantly Daniel Craig’s face.

Martin Campbell, the director of Casino Royale, did not return and the filmmakers turned to Marc Forster, the director of a couple of excellent dramas starring reserved men, especially The Kite Runner and Monster’s Ball.  The writers of Casino Royale, the team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and then Paul Haggis returned.  David Arnold came back for his fifth film for as the composer and Robert Schaefer was hired as the cinematographer.  Dan Bradley was hired as the second unit director.

The last choice concerned me a bit when I learned of his resume, which includes the Bourne films.  The Bourne films inspired the Bond producers to realize modern audiences will eagerly embrace a well made character centered spy action film.  Casino Royale reflected this change.  However, while I personally thought all three Bourne films were exciting and well made, I did not like the use of the handheld cameras during the action sequences in the last two, directed by Paul Greengrass, particularly the fights.  I get dizzy easily and watching a film like that in the theatre is uncomfortable.  I understand the intent is to have the audience feel involved but I do not see the point in going to the expense and trouble of staging a complicated action scene, only to not have your audience able to follow the action. So I was a little apprehensive to see the Bond producers hire the person who had been in charge of many of those scenes for their new film.

Forster appears to have designed Quantum of Solace off the template of the last two Greengrass-directed Bourne films.  The film is about an hour and 45 minutes long, by far the shortest of the series and over half an hour shorter than Casino Royale.  A lot of the scenes, and shots, get right to the main point and move on and many of Bond’s lines are incredibly direct (“He is”, “Yes, you did”).  While I generally enjoy a quick pace I also like to savor my Bond films and oftentimes it feels like Forster is doing everything he can to meet a preset running time instead of exploring his themes.

 The cast for the film is pretty good.  Olga Kurylenko plays Camille, a former Bolivian Secret Service operative who like Bond has suffered a tragic loss (a corrupt general murdered her family in front of her and set fire to her home, leaving a burn on her back).  I had just seen Kurylenko in Hitman when this was announced and it struck me as an odd choice as I felt if a Latina character was needed it made more sense to cast a Latina actress but Kurylenko turned out just fine, and her appearance explained by her Russian mother in the film.  Gemma Atherton has a small role as a local British operative named Fields who has a quick fling with Bond.  Mathieu Amalric plays the main villain Dominic Greene, an industrial environmentalist who is a member of Quantum.  Returning players from Casino Royale are Judi Dench, as M and Giancarlo Gianinni as Rene Mathis.  Rory Kinnear joins the series as Bill Tanner, M’s chief of staff.

Judi Dench has a larger role than usual in this film.  However unlike in her expanded roles in The World is Not Enough and Skyfall in which M had personal connections to the villains, here M (and Tanner) are involved in each step of the mission and Bond reports in constantly (until he goes rogue).  This approach allows the filmmakers to build the mother/son dynamic between M and Bond that had started in Casino Royale.  M recognizes, despite Bond’s failed attempts to convince her otherwise, that Bond is suffering and wants him to confide in her, I feel so that she can guide him.  

Quantum of Solace had one other big challenge, the Writer’s Strike of 2007 and 2008. The rewrite by Paul Haggis was turned in hours before the strike began. I do not know how it directly affected production but it may have contributed to the short scenes.  Also a plot for a film usually needs a gestation period while the strands are worked out.  A script written in a hurry, even by a writer of Haggis' caliber, is probably going to suffer.  Oftentimes tweaks will be made as the production nears and in this case the writers were not allowed to do so until the strike ended about three months into production which probably hurt the finished film.

Nonetheless I like the villain’s plot.  Greene is planning a coup d’etat in Bolivia by installing the corrupt General Medrano as president to then overcharge Medrano for the use of water, which Green has gotten access to by tricking Medrano into giving him exclusive access to many of the lands where Quantum has dammed it.  Greene has tricked the U.S. to stay out of it by offering oil from the lands if any were found in those areas, which are in remote parts of Bolivia, but there is only water.  Presumably the revenue generated by extorting Medrano will fund several of Quantum’s other criminal activities.  Camille is given a personal strand with her connection to Medrano having murdered her family, although she admits her father was “a horrible man”.  Other action films would have just had it be her mission but this drives her actions and gives Camille a parallel mission to Bond’s. Like Vesper, this new Bond leading lady has her own agenda and if this were not a Bond film the entire story could just as easily be told from Camille’s point of view.

David Arnold returned to write his last score to date, which I think is the best of the five Bond scores he has written as of 2014.  The score is entertaining and gives the action scenes a fun vibe while also more complex than his previous scores, adding use of the acoustic guitar in scenes such as when Bond and Camille are walking across the Bolivian desert and the sequence in which Bond and Camille say goodbye. 

Here is a walkthrough of my impression of the film.  I wish the gun barrel had opened the film.  I understand the desire to change the formula a bit and but I have always seen it the gun barrel as pulling back the curtain to opening a Bond film.  In Casino Royale it was put into the main titles but here it would have been a perfect opening to the car chase (here is a fan made sample).  Instead the gun barrel is at the end which does not flow well with the muted final scene.  The chase itself is somewhat exciting but due more to the score since it is hard to see what is going on with the super tight camera angles and the quick cuts.  The location is interesting, a tunnel and then a quarry (which in real life are nowhere close to each other), but cannot be truly appreciated.  I wonder if it is modeled after the climactic car chase in The Bourne Supremacy, which also a featured a tunnel. The final moment of the pre title sequence cleverly reveals that Mr. White, captured at the end of Casino Royale, has been in the trunk of the Aston Martin during this horrifying chase.

Daniel Kleinman succeeded Maurice Binder with the main title design for every Bond film since Goldeneye and had been a natural successor coming up with some fluid and creative visuals.  However the titles for Quantum of Solace were designed by a group called MK12, who had previously worked with Forster.  They are competent but unmemorable as they take theme of Bond in the desert and have him shooting bullets into the sand.  The song, by Jack White and Alicia keys, has interesting lyrics about being an assassin and a clever piano bar at the beginning but the melody is forgettable.

The next major sequence, Bond chasing after Mitchell, the traitor, is probably the worst action scene in the film, despite a good score.  I have been to Siena.  It is a beautiful old city in Tuscany and ones of its trademark events is the Palio di Siena, which is a horse race run through the Piazza del Campo, each horse representing a neighborhood in Siena.  Setting a chase scene during this event is a great idea, however the execution is dreadful.

The scene is built up with the interrogation of Mr. White and the surprise of Mitchell’s attack, and when I first saw the film I thought M had been shot.  She flinches and appears to go down.  When Bond returns after the chase/fight I thought that M would be in the hospital.  Watching in slow motion and using pause reveals Mitchell’s shot hit a pole next to M as Bond was reacting and throwing a chair and going after Mitchell, as M runs out of the room (moving pretty well I will add).  I do not understand why Forster would want the audience to think M had been shot and then never explain that she was not. 

The chase, Bond going after Mitchell goes through the tunnels and then into middle of the race  and across rooftops and balconies, through alleyways and it seems inspired by both the similarly placed chase in Casino Royale and the chase in The Bourne Ultimatum in Tangier (which I had also not liked).  Both the Bourne chase and this one seem to have been filmed with the cameraman running after the actors and stuntmen with a camera strapped to their chests.  Again this is just a matter of taste but I prefer to watch my action scenes from more of a distance.

The ending of the scene, in which Bond and Mitchell fall off a tower and through some scaffolding while both trying to reach their guns before the other, is staged well but far too frantically edited.  

I like the following scenes in M’s office which looks more modern than her old office (since this takes place right afterwards maybe this was under renovation during Casino Royale).  When Bond gets to Haiti the staging and editing of the scenes in which he fights Slate and meets and then trails Camille on the motorcycle is efficient, energetic and the score is both Bondian with a local guitar flavor.  Bond has an interesting line when he says in a matter of fact way “I don’t have any friends.”  

The introduction of Greene and the boat chase were neither memorable nor poor but they did effectively establish Camille’s grudge and frustration with Medrano.  Medrano might have been a better main heavy than Greene since he is more menacing with his heft and military fatigues (perhaps inspired by Hugo Chavez) while Greene just seems like kind of a weasel.

The film, now entering its second act with all the major players established, becomes much stronger and more focused.  The sequence in which Bond and M via phone and text identify Greene and then M figures out that the U.S. has some sort of relationship with him is again efficiently told.  This cuts perfectly into the audience confirmation of this when the slimy Gregory Beam of the CIA is obviously forcing Felix Leiter to join him in working with Greene. Beam is played by David Harbour who played a very different role in Revolutionary Road which released about the same time (and was directed by future Bond director Sam Mendes). Harbour has fun playing Beam, who is tall and a little overweight yet wears tight suits which look uncomfortable.  His moustache seems a little too big and he has an annoying laugh.  He is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.  Both Felix and Greene outfox him easily.

Jeffrey Wright returning as Felix has an interesting perspective to play here.  Felix has to see Bond, who Felix knows is doing the right thing by going after Greene, threatened by Felix’ own people, but can do little about it until his scene at the bar late in the film.  Felix has no one to express this to but does so well with his body language. 

I really like the brief scene in the plane in which Greene tests Felix with the picture of Bond on the plane.  Felix tries to thread the needle by saying little but Beam makes clear he is onto him. Anyone who has ever been forced by a boss to do something they may not agree with may be able to identify with that scene. 

The opera sequence gives the film a reason to get Bond in a tuxedo and showcases an original idea for the Quantum corporate meeting (the members spread throughout the audience having a conference call) than if it had just been staged in an office or a big room.  Also an opera seems an appropriate setting for a Bond film.  Bond, true to his character, boldly reveals on the conference call that he has been listening so he can have a chance to identify the members when they stand up.  The shifty Mr. White is the only one clever enough to stay seated and Bond fails to spot him even though Bond walks past his row.  The quick shootout, while also overly edited, is well matched to the action on the stage. 

The subsequent scene with M in her bathroom shows that M is always on the job even at home and never misses a beat.  When she realizes Bond is not going to obey her she wastes no time in revoking his cards and passport and Bond quickly picks up on this (and then takes a second to plan his next step-knowing what is coming).

The scene on the plane, which we see from Mathis’ point of view is important.  Mathis' involvement, the one person who observed his relationship with Vesper revives her memories in the audience. When Mathis sees Bond drinking several of the Vespers (the strong vodka martini that Bond named after her in Casino Royale) on the plane Mathis’ reaction is to help.  The score is playing a mournful version of the Vesper theme and Bond hides the picture of Vesper because it would embarrass him for Mathis to see him drinking over her.  Often people going through difficult times may appear fine when around others during the day but at night when they are alone with their thoughts is when they truly suffer.  Mathis tries to prod Bond to open up but Bond changes the subject to ask why Mathis agreed to help him (without looking Mathis in the eye) since Bond had him imprisoned in the previous film.  From this Mathis and Bond reaffirm their friendship which makes what happens to Mathis in Bolivia extra tragic.

The scene in the cab is one of the few humorous bits in the film with the old cab driver who talks loudly without anyone really listening, is funny because it feels accurate for anyone who has spent time in South America.  Mathis’ reaction to the cabdriver is what gives the scene its kick, along with the Spanish guitar influenced score.

At the party a couple of interesting things occur.  Felix is there but in another area from Bond, with Beam.   Felix discreetly protects Bond by not letting Beam know that Bond is there  Fields, an office worker assigned to Bolivia briefly sees Bond interacting with Greene and senses she maybe should help so she politely excuses herself from speaking with Felix and Carlos and then trips the man following them so Bond and Camille can leave without being followed.  As an aside, I think Camille could have handled Green without Bond's help.  Bond and Camille go straight to his car and then moments later Mathis is revealed beaten up in the back of the car.  If this happened Mathis was betrayed and beaten very badly in a matter of a couple of minutes.  It would have been more believable to have had Mathis out of the conversation earlier or Carlos taking him somewhere. 

I do wonder what the purpose was to kill Mathis.  While it does give Mathis an unguarded moment and is moving (Craig’s performance in the scene, is fantastic as he tries to comfort Mathis and then freezing as Mathis mentions Vesper) I did not see it as a necessary death.  Mathis could have been captured (to keep Bond from investigating further) and Bond could have had a redemptive moment when he saved him later.  Bond says to Mathis, “I shouldn’t have left you alone”, again without looking Mathis in the eye, I think referring more to the fact Bond had Mathis tortured (offscreen) in Casino Royale than in what just happened.  Afterwards, oddly Bond drops Mathis into a garbage dump.  I felt this was a bit out of character since Bond in previous films always shows some respect to deceased partners (ie Quarrel in Dr. No or Tilly in Goldfinger), but Bond may have been done so to avoid dealing with his grief.

The inclusion of Mathis in Quantum of Solace does bring up continuity issues from Casino Royale.  In the second to last scene of Casino Royale Bond tells M to keep sweating Mathis, which indicates that Mathis is still imprisoned.  In the same scene Bond, in Venice, gets a clue Vesper left him, leading him to Mr. White, who is only a few hours away in Lake Como, Italy.  Therefore the viewer would suspect that Bond captures Mr. White either that same day or the next day at the latest.  Quantum of Solace starts supposedly the same day that Mr. White is captured and most of the action in Quantum of Solace takes place over a period of about a week.  Mathis appears on about day four.  I find it unlikely that Mathis could have been cleared, freed, and set up in his new villa within about three to four days.  Since the films were made two years apart that timeframe seems more likely.

Bond films are well known for showcasing exotic and posh locales and making poor areas look like paradises but Quantum of Solace takes an exception to this approach.  I think few people would want to visit Bolivia or Haiti after seeing this film as they are portrayed as dirty and full of corruption, but were actually filmed in Chile and Panama.  The film even pokes a little fun of the series itself when Bond refuses to stay in a low budget hotel after arriving in La Paz.  Foster even clarifies that the local people who live in the exotic looking are poor.

The airplane sequence, due to the rocky environment, reminds me of the asteroid chase in The Empire Strikes Back.  Bond and Camille are in an old heavy DC-3, which was often used for smuggling, and does not have guns as opposed to the two aircraft he is up against.  Bond's escape method after the plane is hit,  flying as high as possible to allow himself and Camille time to jump out and link up so they can use the single parachute before they fall into the sinkhole is ingenious.  But the chute opened too late to have truly saved them.  The cinematography is not as tight as in some of the early action sequences and once again the score delivers, especially in the way that it rhythmically builds as the plane goes straight up right before Bond and Camille jump out.

The sequence back at the hotel is also clever.  Bond’s instinct before entering the room, somehow sensing it is M in there (maybe he smells her perfume from outside) and not a Quantum villain, is a good touch and then the way he escapes in the elevator (similar to a scene in Mission Impossible III) and then goes right back to see M is smoothly executed and gets her back on his side.  Then Bond leaves before anyone else sees them together, protecting M politically.  Arnold’s subdued use of the Bond theme adds to the atmosphere, especially the way it builds as Bond walks back around the corner and reveals himself to M after he has freed himself.  

The climax pits Bond and Camille against Greene and Medrano.  Daniel Craig is so much bigger than Mathieu Amalric that the filmmakers give Amalric an ax and have him swing it wildly which makes him much of a threat than if he were a trained fighter as Bond cannot read his next move.  The crosscutting between Camille and Medrano’s fight adds to the suspense and due to the challenge Camille faces, a bigger opponent and the threat of rape (Medrano was attacking another woman when Camille entered and he had previously raped Camille’s mother).  The scene has a dramatic end as it appears Bond and Camille may perish in a fire, similar to the one that burned Camille’s house.  Camille powerfully regresses and starts to act like a frightened young girl (as she was in the first fire when her family was killed) and she and Bond are ready to kill themselves to avoid burning to death before Bond spots a gas tank that allows them to escape.  It is in moments like these in which Forster, a fine dramatic director, truly excels.

Ironically Camille sleeps with Greene (offscreen) but not Bond.  I agree with the filmmakers’ decision to not have the two in bed as given Bond’s state of mind it would be difficult to see him in any kind of relationship with another woman so prominently on his mind.  I do not even think we needed to see the scene of Bond in bed with Fields (though many audience members would probably disagree with me) but the way Craig plays it is obviously a light distraction that will be quickly forgotten and he is probably doing it more to keep her off his back than anything else.

Instead of bringing Greene in, Bond leaves him in the desert, after interrogating him, a cruel ending for this louse as we can imagine his suffering.  As a viewer I would have liked to witness some of the interrogation to learn a little more about this organization that has been causing this trouble for two films but it may have been left offscreen for three reasons:  1) to avoid a longer dialogue scene deep in the third act since Forster was determined to keep the film short and 2) to keep the information open ended so nothing in that scene could work counter to any events in future films  3) there was a concluding scene filmed in which Bond confronts Guy Haines, a British politician whose bodyguard Bond killed in the opera scene, and Mr. White that was ultimately dropped.  The interrogation scene with Greene, if ever filmed, would probably have had information on where Bond could find them, which would have looked silly if they had never followed up on it.

With regard to Guy Haines, the dropped plot thread makes little sense.  Is this politician part of Quantum, as he appears to be, or is he making a deal with Quantum about Bolivia as well?  Did Guy Haines place Mitchell with M to keep tabs on the British pursuit of Quantum?  The whole strand is a bit unclear and as it stands only serves as a way to get Bond out of favor with M, and by extension, British authorities, after the opera scene.

 Bond’s goodbye to Camille is well played as it is the scene in which Bond delivers the line about vengeance as Camille realizes that now that she has had her revenge she feels empty.  Vengeance is more for the survivors, who had something taken from them, than for those who are already gone.  The two are dirty and bruised but starting to heal, which is an effective metaphor of their emotional states.  As the audience we almost never see Bond’s goodbyes to his leading ladies.  Bond and Camille both exit quickly to avoid lingering in any kind of emotional feelings. 

The following scene is one of the film’s best dramatic moments, well-staged by Forster.  The contrast, straight from the desert to wintry Russia is effective.  As Bond, wearing gloves inside probably because the apartment he is waiting in is so cold surprises a couple walking in, I knew, even without making the connection from the photo, that the man had been Vesper’s boyfriend, Yusef Kabira.  I wondered why Bond was angry with him as Vesper had abandoned Kabira for Bond in Casino Royale (something never truly explained in the film but the book had) until it became clear that he had laid a honey trap for Vesper and his capture had been faked.  This set up is creatively explained by Bond to his new girlfriend, a Canadian agent named Corrine, and proven by Bond’s display of Vesper's necklace, which Corrine, also has.  The actor playing Kabira, Simon Kassianides has the look of a cornered rat out of his depth.   Corrine, played by Stana Katic, wants to keep her resolve as she is first scared of this man holding a gun on them and then recognizes, that worse, her relationship is built on a painful lie.  I like how she exits with dignity after quietly thanking Bond (who we think has had her leave so he does not kill Kabira in front of her). Craig plays Bond as cold (the blue eyes take on an ice-like feature referenced often in the Bond books) but in full control of his emotions and actually showing empathy for Corrine.  When Bond reveals that Vesper was very close to him it is his way of saying to the audience that he recognizes the truth has forgiven her.  It is one Craig’s best scenes as Bond and I think a bit overlooked, though I wish it were a little longer, given its importance.

The scene left me a little sad recognizing much of Vesper’s actions against Bond during the game in Casino Royale was due to a cruel trick and not on a true loving relationship.  

The final scene in the film, fittingly between M and Bond proves that Bond has learned his lesson from their first scene in Casino Royale about the greater good and has also come to terms with his loss. Bond dropping Vesper’s necklace in the snow (shown only after it hits the ground-we never see Bond decide to drop it) shows that he has found his Quantum of Solace and will move on.

The film then, as mentioned earlier goes right into the Bond gunbarrel and theme, which feels completely out of place.  However the cue that follows, which is not on the soundtrack is much more appropriate and one wishes the film had segued right to that theme.

In conclusion, I am overall, pretty fond of Quantum of Solace since its strengths, a more realistic plot, Craig’s strong performance, an affecting character arc for Bond and the other characters, and some good dramatic scenes, far outweigh its negative attributes, the aforementioned shaky cam, continuity issues from Casino Royale, and the overly short length which keeps some of the themes from being properly explored.  I left the film less thrilled than after seeing Casino Royale and Skyfall but quite satisfied. ***