BOND IS BACK, DID IT BANG???

FILM: Quantum of Solace
DIRECTOR: Marc Froster CAST: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric




Marc Froster's Quantum of Solace, which is necessarily the continuation of the story he told two years back, Casino Royale. Ian Fleming, I consider should be amongst the top 100 thinkers of the 20th century. The imagination that has gone into the making of the Bond is just impeccable. During the days when the sun started setting in the British empire and real life special agents of Russia and the United States did high level espionage in various corners of the world, thinkers like Fleming gave the so called Solace to the British mass by describing great imaginations of cool weapons and accessories. This movie though not written by Ian Fleming but by Paul and Neal Haggis is an equally lovely story. In Quantum of Solace the basic plot is the point where we left in Casino Royale. After being betrayed by the girl he loved,Vesper, Bond was in search of the person who was the reason for this betrayal. This was his personal task along with the actual job he had in hand. On interrogation of Mr White, Bond discovers that there is existence of a secret unheard organisation. White mentions that this organisation has its plants everywhere and anywhere. And as soon as he says it, one of the men around the investigation area opened fire and killed a few around and proved it that truly this organisation was present everywhere. But this fact gets super faded in due course and you dont really get scared by this organisation and dont see its men everywhere!! This organisation was responsible to blackmail Vesper to steal Bond's casino earnings(in Casino Royale). Now in Haiti, Italy, Bond meets Camille due to a mistake of identity and this introduces him further to a person called Dominic Greene(Amalric), who is a heartless businessman who talks of environmental issues, but actually is a major force in a criminal organisation called Quantum.

Now here starts the adventure of Bond through places like Austria, Italy, Bolivia and South America where he realises the depth of the nexus Greene is involved into and what big intentions he has and how are they ecologically and politically dangerous for the world. Within this journey, the movie provides non stop action(becomes a headache at a point) and Bond goes closer to completing both his personal and professional goals. The script is really intrguing but I am afraid the direction was not up to the mark. Froster erred quiet a few times and that upsets this flick to be called a classic, otherwise the plot has good enough elements to make it a great classic. Also one thing which irritated me was the photography. Too much of close up in action sequences is a trick used by cameramen to make the effect of shaking movement. Here it was more necessary to show a proper chasing scene rather than create illusions of a chase. In most action scenes, the close up was too much which spoils up the broth. Coming to the performances, I guess after Sean its Daniel. He has performed very nicely. Olga suits her character very well and gives a good enough performance. Amalric for me was the high point in the acting as far as Quantum of Solace is concerned. Going through public responses, Bond lovers are not really happy with Quantum of Solace, nor am I. Probably next time they will need something more than a quantum to give solace to the lovers of Bond, James Bond!