Not Quite Enough - A TWINE review

NOT QUITE ENOUGH
“The World Is Not Enough” REVIEWED. AGAIN!

Shaking The Formula
Uniquely and tellingly, the gun barrel in 1999’s 19th Eon James Bond film opens on … James Bond. Pierce Brosnan, on his way to becoming the “Billion Dollar Bond”, wearing glasses seems to encapsulate what this film tries to do: shake and stir the formula a little, utterly confident of its central star.

This PTS ends with Bond effectively delivering the bomb that kills a close friend of M and failing to apprehend one of the assassins. Bond himself falls and injures himself on the iconic Millennium Dome. In falling, Bond fails, tumbling in silhouette to the titles on a downer. What has happened to the cheer-worthy stunt ending that defined the PTS since 1977? James Bond wearing glasses is the first clue that the audience’s perception of Bond might be used against them. The formula defining the FilmBond world for the longest time might not be enough.


The Helsinki Syndrome
Neil Purvis and Robert Wade created a Bond adventure as overwrought as a Shakespearean tragedy. The history, motivation and interaction between the principal characters underpin the entire story. Firstly, then, we need to understand the rather warped Elektra King.

1) She believes her father, Sir Robert King, conned her mother’s family
out of their oil wealth, presumably when he takes over the Tsunumi
corporation.
2) She was a wild, wayward, spoiled, sexually mature young lady (her
antics make "Hello" magazine) who always had power over men (her
father, her lovers, her kidnapper).
3) When kidnapped by Viktor Zokas aka Renard and held for USD $5,000,000
ransom, it was assumed that Elektra suffered Stockholm syndrome. She
didn’t. It turns out Renard is following her to the point of
sacrifice. She knew exactly what she was doing, cutting off her own
earlobe to provide a "proof of life". She turned Renard and
planned her elaborate revenge and power plan from this point. Hence,
it was the opposite of Stockholm syndrome; Helsinki syndrome, perhaps?
4) The delayed ransom further stokes Elektra’s resentment of her father
(see 1. above). However, Sir Robert's delay is on his friend, Head
of MI6's, advice. M wanted time to target Renard. As it happens, the
ransom is not paid and Elektra “escapes” by shooting and killing
Renard's compadres in Cyprus.
5) Elekra also wants vengeance for MI6’s above complicity. She pointedly
arranges for the return of money to her father (a refund for payment for his dodgy purchase of a dodgy stolen oil-pipeline threat report) for an amount exactly the same as her unpaid ransom amount. The urea-soaked cash (wouldn't it pong?) is booby trapped to be set off only by a doctored, replica of Sir Robert's famous lapel pin called "The Eye of the Glens".
6) This last action allows Elektra to control King Industries, cause
her father’s death at the hand of MI6 and set her wider ambitions in
motion.

Phew, talk about a woman scorned! And that's just the beginning!

Strictly Plutonic
I get very confused by the caper of Elektra's wider ambitions. If you do too, get this in your head first:
1 The competing pipelines taking oil from the Caspian Sea go to the NORTH.
2 That oil is put into tankers.
3 The tankers go across the Black Sea to Istanbul.

Now,
4 Weapons grade plutonium is stolen in the decommissioning site in Kazakhstan.
5 An attempt to sabotage the King pipeline is staged with HALF the stolen
plutonium (not enough to go nuclear in a conventional bomb so no lasting
damage) in order to:
i) throw the intelligence services off the scent of the real threat; and
ii) make the authorities think ALL the plutonium (see 4 above) was
used in the bombing of the pipeline.

Meanwhile,
6 An aging Russian nuclear submarine is purchased on the black market.
7 Said purchase facilitated by Zukovsky in a rigged card game in the Casino
L'Or Noir.

Finale,
8 Said nuclear submarine is secretly sent to Istanbul.
9 The aging nuclear reactor is primed with the other half of the stolen
plutonium (see 4 above).
10 A nuclear accident is to be staged (killing Renard who is dying anyway).
11 Effect of accident is to irradiate the Bosporus and surrounding Black Sea
for decades.
12 Said tankers (see 3 above) will not be able to ship their oil to Istanbul
i.e. the West.

The Clever Bit.
13 The King pipeline goes to the SOUTH!(see 1 above)
14 Elektra does not need the Bosporus to transport her oil.
15 Her source of oil remains the only game in town.
16 She literally has her hand on the spigot of the world's (non-Middle
Eastern) oil supply (a line like this was in an early draft).
17 Elektra King becomes the one of the most powerful people in the world.

TWINE, in particular, highlights the problems with all the Brosnan films.
a) They have great, well worked-out plots.
b ) They do not take the time to properly explain them.
c) They do not take the time to explain the consequences of what will occur.
d) They do not take the time to explain the villain's motivation.

To whit,
I) So proud is Elektra of her mother/family's name that we never find it out
in the movie (an early draft of the script had her family name as Vavra -
same as Kerim Bey's gypsy pal in FRWL)
II) We do not know the value of the oil in understandable terms. Same early
draft had a reference to trillions of dollars of oil. We GET the word
"trillion"! "Bright, starry oil driven future" is not enough.
III)It is important that the oil is not from the Middle-East – it breaks that
region’s virtual monopoly on supply which is better for the West. King's
concentration of oil power is not.
IV) Middle Eastern oil stocks are dwindling. King's oil opens up a new future.
V) King's sympathies may lie with enemies of the West.
VI) King and her family and people, long undervalued between the wars and
their ravaged land will suddenly become power brokers forcing the world to
reckon with them.

A Different World
It is a GREAT, Bondian plot but sorely under-explained. It has the genius of the Goldfinger "Mint-Julep-Moment" about it but for the lack of a couple of simple dialogue scenes, this is not really explained to us.

Yes, we get it upon forensic analysis, but as the saying goes KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. We need to be told in ways we understand, in a visually stimulating way so we remember and digest the significance of the story elements.

Instead of the parahawk scene, let Bond and Elektra fly over her land (2nd Unit establishing the Azerbaijan/Baku location sorely underused), as she explains where she comes from and the meaning of her family name. We know the communists raped the land but we need to hear how Elektra feels about it. "A generation of my family perished. It was a personal holocaust for the Vavras. My people will never be treated that we again. We shall tell the world, 'Enough!'". There, we GET it. She needs to say "There is a trillion dollars of non-Arab oil down there in the land of my mother. The oil in the Middle East is fast diminishing. Soon there will be a new future and I alone can alleviate the oil choke hold of the Middle East." There, we GET it.

When Bond suddenly leave Elektra (whom he is assigned to protect) in the middle of the night, the story digresses into a missile silo in Kazakhstan. The silo shoot-out is pointless. Bond then returns to Baku as if nothing has happened! Perhaps Bond should visit the decommissioning site with Elekra (King Industries is in charge of this in an early draft). Let Renard try to take Bond out then. This would precipitate the action in the silo, get Bond to meet Dr Jones and also produce another wonderful character moment for Elektra as she has a “reaction” to seeing her kidnapper again.

Bond directors feel they do not like their villains to grandstand (hear Martin Campbell's commentary on GE). They feel it is a bit too Pandora's Box-ish, vulnerable to Austin Powers-ization! But, good story telling not only requires the plot elements to be in place but requires time for their significance to be understood by the audience. This suggested rewrite of TWINE is a bit arrogant but I have spent a long, long time pondering why this excellent and prescient and original idea of a Bond movie left me feeling under whelmed. It would have taken 10 lines of dialogue.

Victor Zokas = Roy Batty
When Renard says Elektra was innocent when he first met, he is in thrall to her. When Renard quotes Elektra’s motto, he really believes it, especially given his present condition. Elektra probably planned this whole scheme when she was kidnapped and afterwards. Having her kidnapper fall in love with her and being a terrorist was useful. Renard is her puppy dog lover to threaten other pipelines and scapegoat her plan. While given a wonderful Bondian tic, a bullet in the medulla oblongata, nothing is really developed from this. Given a memorable holographic introduction, Renard’s increasing strength and lack-of-sensation or pain (unused from the TND script) is not really exploited apart from his imperviousness to the molten rocks and the sinister bedroom scene with Elektra. His frustration/jealousy of Bond is underlined – they have shared the same passion and cruelty - Elektra. He is the perfect person to perform the ultimate suicide mission of manning the doomed submarine. But the finale is a bit low key. What if, while Bond and Renard are fighting it out - Bond tells him Elektra is dead? Supposing Renard just slumps down and like Roy Batty, the dying replicant in Blade Runner, and weirdly, philosophically realizes his efforts are futile. Both he and Bond were addicted to the drug of Elekra but now he can be with his love. And then Renard just dies. Of course, such and ending would seem like a cop-out and not have the requisite Bondian action satisfaction but, if handled properly, it would a have strange, unsettling, very moody and highly original quality. Robert Carlyle is OK but lacks the feral, anarchic, Begbie energy the role requires. Carlyle very good dramatically and one feels for his character. It was a bit of a thankless role – the vicious/sympathetic patsy to the real villain.

King Con
Bond really does fall for Elekra: beginning with his guilt over not saving King, her bravery at the funeral, the weight of M's support, the way she handles the rioting villagers, the way she skis, her vulnerability post avalanche, her passion, "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive" - surely a motto 007 himself could use, her powerful beauty, her exquisite, Louis XV love-making. By the time he encounters Renard, 007 is hooked. He justifies her allegiance without perceiving it could be the other way round. Even when he calls her on it in his Stockholm syndrome speech, she convinces him he’s wrong. There is an essential truth (yes, I know this is a Bond film) about his relationship with Elektra that makes it the best thing in the film. Inspired by Fleming’s Tracy di Vincenzo and Vesper Lynd, writers Purvis and Wade with uncredited work from Michael Apted’s wife, Dana Stevens (Bruce Feirstein did a polish but did not change much) created the best female character in the series – bejeweled in history and motivation. Sophie Marceau is absolutely perfect - intelligent, spoiled, sophisticated, perverse and utterly beautiful. Her French-accented line readings are quirky yet sexy and her slinky, feline presence is graceful and malevolent.

Double M
Into this drama, a Bond film tries to emerge. Pierce Brosnan gives us a Bond all too humanized by physical (dislocated shoulder) and emotional (dislocated heart) challenges. 007, however, is still ruthless: note his cold-blooded shooting of Elektra. That this is witnessed by M adds an interesting dynamic to TWINE. In GE, Bond was the precocious star whom the new M felt she had to put down. In TND, she had a grudging respect for him saw the use of this relic of the Cold War. By this film, she confides in Bond and it is almost like a sequence from the Fleming story of MR and FYEO where Bond is used on a quasi-personal mission. M is complicit in the King situation which leads to her eventual kidnap. (this unnecessary twist felt like a rewrite to maximize M’s role, capitalizing of Dame Judi’s recent Oscar win). The exchange between them in Castle Thane (“Don’t make this personal” “I’m not – are you?”) where M clears the room is character progression and not seen between these characters in the series before. Brosnan and Dame Judi do superb, subtle work and when M sees 007’s licence to kill in operation against Elektra (remember, a family friend), her horrified, sad reaction is the stuff of tragedy. This sequence (to have been accompanied by the line, “The bitch is dead now.”) is powerful, combining the unique aspects of Brosnan’s Bond – his vulnerability, his emotional struggle between commitment and detachment. Brosnan is also terrific in the PTS – showcasing all his strengths as Bond: grace under pressure, an elegant brutality dressed to kill and weapon-sharp wit. Brosnan is hugely convincing in the love story - Elekra is written deliberately to echo Tracy. Brosnan is sometimes over actor-ly (folding arms, covering mouth, hands in pockets - listen to the Campbell commentary on GE) and appears to have been unchecked by Apted leading to a performance more ornate than nuanced. His choices are terrific in other areas (his pregnant pause when asked if he's lost a loved one, preparing to execute Renard in the silo and the scene on the torture chair). TWINE justifiably made Pierce Brosnan the “Billion Dollar Bond” – the trade advertisement announcing the combined worldwide gross of his first 3 Bond films.

Unwrapped Christmas
The film is so dominated by the three central characters that it seems superfluous to mention Dr Christmas Jones. A slightly chippy performance from the attractive Denise Richards makes her a defensive and irate presence most of the time. Her Tomb-Raider attire is sexy but compared to Elektra, Christmas remains unwrapped - an afterthought of thin characterization. In an early draft she was a French-Polynesian nuclear physicist dismantling nuclear weapons (a topical jibe at French nuclear testing in the Pacific) who works with King Industries (who have been given the contract to decommission nuclear sites). Robbie Coltrane’s Sidney Greenstreet presence as Zukovsky is fun but the character is completely different in looks, business and location. His cane gun rescue of Bond is a cop-out. Maria Grazia Cucinotta’s Guilietta da Vinci aka the Cigar Girl is wonderfully rounded presence and she could have been a really great femme fatale had she been given more to do. It is no wonder she tested for the role of Elektra. Ulrich Thomsen’s Sasha Davidov and John Seru’s Gabor (a Fiji-an warrior henchman lingering from scripts) are functional but not memorable. Goldie’s gangsta Mr Bull (aka Maurice Womasa from Somalia) is visually memorable but not given anything to do but sneer and skulk. However, Goldie is in the fine Bond casting tradition of counter-casting singers as odd characters.

At Castle Thane
MI6 is re-assembled in Castle Thane, Scotland (an unused idea from a Timothy Dalton Bond 17 treatment). Michael Kitchen and Colin Salmon team up for the first time as Tanner and Robinson respectively. Both essentially tell the dense back-story. Samantha Bond’s Moneypenny is given a good, topical joke (throwing the Clinton-esque cigar in the bin) and shows the much improved-writing and character of small female roles in Bond (see Dr Molly Warmflash squeezing Bond’s dislocated shoulder - “You will promise to call, this time”). Compare to their dated, corny and sexist 1980’s counterparts. Desmond Llewelyn’s presciently poignant last appearance as Major Geoffrey Boothroyd aka Q is fine but John Cleese’s Fawlty performance is undignified and distracting. Still, it is interesting that Q’s replacement is a character actor of immense standing and will not be a carbon copy of what has gone before. More Dame Judi than Robert Brown.

Apted Adapts
Michael Apted was renowned for working with (female) actors of quality in personal dramas. He had brushed with thrillers before (Gorky Park, Thunderheart, Extreme Measures) but nothing of this size. He’d even directed a Bond actor before (Timothy Dalton in Agatha in 1979). However, he places at the heart of a Bond film, a twisted, operatic, romantic triangle featuring Bond and two fascinating characters. Traditional Bond watchers assume that there is a villain and there is a henchperson and there is a woman who is romantically involved with Bond. However, the girl turns out to be the villain and the villain, the henchperson. We know Apted is apt for drama but what about action?

Well, the (inexplicably) Bilbao-based opening sequence is classic Bond: a Swiss banker - Patrick Malahide’s fine Lachaise - sets up Elektra’s revenge plot. The scene has sharp dialogue (“We know how difficult [returning money to its rightful owner] can be ...”), a sense of danger (Bond’s mysterious guardian angel) and an element of surprise (the exploding pistol, Lachaise’s death, the window escape). The moment even withstands a hoary old knife-in-the-back routine. The pipeline sequence is also nicely paced and scored, tense and urgent with a slight twist: not to defuse the bomb.

A Little More Conversation, A Little Less Action
The problem is with the rest of the action. One gets the feeling that Apted left most of this to Second Unit Director, Vic Armstrong and was not capable of seamlessly integrating it into the heavy drama of his main unit. With the exception of the bank fight, all the action is fun but does not really thrill or excite. Sequences go on for too long and are effectively variations of Bond escaping machine gun fire. They all work on one level and feel artificially-inseminated in light of the heavy story telling and character requirements set out above. The parahawk sequence, while looking great on paper, is most obviously extraneous. Other examples are the silo and the helicopter buzz-saw assault at the caviar factory (both from the original GE script). The buzz-saw helicopters are used as deforestation equipment but this point is not clearly made in the film (a brief cut in Bond’s BMW ride to Elektra’s site does not explain). The action is rarely smart or properly established. The small, claustrophobic submarine finale is incomprehensible and a very damp squib. When Bond shoots a gas jet and blows up a helicopter or connects a pressure hose to eject a cooling rod, this needs to be set up in the script beforehand. Rather like Zukovsky’s cane gun, these escapes are unsatisfying and feel like cheats.

Come On 007, Your Time Is Now
The PTS boat chase is too linear and suffers from too many cuts (see when Bond goes underneath Tower Bridge – this should have been single, flowing, iconic shot). Each incident is shot as if being ticked off from a list. Bond straightening his tie underwater is silly as is the gag of the boat driving on land (the real Q boat can operate in three inches of water – this explanation was cut). However, the emergence to the Millennium Dome to the sounds of the James Bond theme is a classic moment and the finale of the sequence is well handled. The journey down the historical timeline of the Thames from the modern MI6 HQ, past the mother of Parliaments through Tower Bridge and ending at the Dome is symbolic of Bond’s position as the only modern, populist, internationally-appreciated contemporary British fictional character. That journey is British history in an architectural nutshell.

A lot of the action suffers from very confusing editing. Moments are not set up correctly and the focus seems dissipated. This is at odds with the clarity of the character drama. Editor Jim Clark gives us uneven action. Adrian Biddle’s photography is fine but he is hamstrung by interesting but anonymous locations which are all dressed to be something or somewhere else. The introduction to Azerbaijan is stunning but nothing in the film matches it. A few more establishing shots of Baku, the oil wells, the City of Walkways in the Caspian would have given the film greater authenticity, helping to establish Peter Lamont’s sets. Lamont does his usual detailed, realistic work but at times one wishes for some swagger. The missile silo set is intriguing but lacks the drama of a large arena, the action confined to narrow pockets. The Caviar Factory set is a technical achievement but feels like a set because the role and location are unclear. BTW, Bond's gorgeous BMW Z8 has British registration plates but is a left-hand drive car - shame! Lamont’s best work is the Castle Thane MI6 HQ with floor-projected maps, M’s predecessor in portrait (a lovely touch) and inventive Q workshop. Lindy Hemming’s costumes are forced to convey a sense of place and she captures the exotic quality of Elektra, especially the Tracy-esque ski-wear. Bond looks impeccable as always.

Come Again And Again
Daniel Kleinman’s superb titles, using the oil spectrum, crude oil and derricks as a theme are marvelously clever, erotically surreal and witty although the colour palette is a bit more dull (brown and blacks) than normal. The silhouette girls formed by gushing crude is brilliant as is Bond’s entrance to the titles. David Arnold composes a magnificent Bond score. With lyricist Don Black, he writes two memorable, crafted songs: the title theme performed with a haunting modern edge by Garbage and an unused end title song sung with timeless regret by Scott Walker. The coup of getting the latter to record a Bond song has been somewhat lost by modern audiences. Time will be kind to this song which was written as a spiritual sequel to We Have All The Time In The World. Hopefully, like that song, the mournful jazz gem that is Only Myself To Blame will be rediscovered someday. The song is the thematic spine to the score and the blend of electronica and orchestra is Arnold’s strongpoint. The highlight is the theme accompanying Bond and Elektra ski-ing, "Snow Business", a euphoric piece of music, alas, left off the CD soundtrack.


Small Change Got Rained On By A P99
TWINE left me under whelmed. However, a Bond film should not be first seen in a small, distributor's preview theatre with jaded journos and an atmosphere to match. Small changes and tweaks brought to the formula were blunted by the remaining adherence to said formula: lose some of the action sequences, get rid of the superfluous characters but deliver more character moments, have a genuinely different ending and explain the motiviation and action. The tone of the film shifts inconsistently between involving drama and one-note action. There are many superb things in the film but it feels too rich, too dense, too over-cooked. Perhaps, the film-makers had been too ambitious? However, it certainly laid the ground work to shaking the formula and progressing Bond. With a worldwide gross of over $360 million, it was phenomenal success and amazingly showed no diminishing returns for Brosnan’s 3rd 007 outing. James Bond left the millennium on a popular all time high.