Sam Mendes makes an absorbing Bond thriller, with Daniel Craig and Judi Dench giving its personal troubles proper weight. Roger Deakins’ photography rewards close attention, though the screenplay explains more about Bond than we need.
Sam Mendes makes the relationship between James Bond and M worth the attention usually reserved for the villain. Skyfall is a confident, affecting thriller, and we recommend it despite a tendency to explain more about Bond than we need. Daniel Craig and Judi Dench make the personal stakes convincing. There is enough between these two to sustain our interest through 143 minutes, even when the film starts taking its time.
Craig makes Bond’s uncertainty visible without turning him into a man waiting to be rescued. His reserve gives Dench something solid to push against. We were moved by the effort she puts into remaining severe with him. Her clipped delivery makes M’s authority seem necessary to her, and not entirely comfortable. Craig responds with a watchfulness that makes even their professional exchanges feel personal.
Roger Deakins gives the action clean outlines and enough room for us to follow Craig’s movements. His care with faces matters too: Bond’s discomfort remains visible within the polished image. Dennis Gassner’s production design suits the film’s concern with authority, giving the confrontations a sense of formality. These are spaces in which people look accustomed to being obeyed. That formality works particularly well for Dench, whose performance makes authority seem like a daily responsibility rather than an excuse to issue orders.
Javier Bardem’s Silva is a welcome disruption of all this restraint. Bardem makes the character’s theatricality unsettling, allowing us to enjoy the performance without forgetting the hostility underneath it. The broadness occasionally threatens to turn a confrontation into a solo performance, but he gives Craig a useful change of rhythm. Ben Whishaw supplies another as Q, making intelligence seem brisk and practical, and bringing some welcome impatience to a film whose principal characters have plenty to brood over.
Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan are less sure of how far to pursue Bond’s private troubles. His relationship with M already gives us plenty to consider, and the additional attention to his past can feel like an explanation delivered after we have understood. Craig and Dench do enough with a pause or a look that some of the psychological explanation feels unnecessary. Those stretches slow the film, and its length starts to tell.
Stuart Baird’s editing is more persuasive in the action than in these reflective passages. Physical movement has a clear rhythm, while some of the dramatic pauses feel like permission to admire the film’s seriousness. Thomas Newman’s score helps keep the action urgent without trying to supply all its excitement. The music gives Baird a steady pulse to work with, and helps the film regain pace after its longer conversations.
As a spy thriller, Skyfall takes an unusual amount of interest in the strain of doing the job. It still enjoys the well-cut suit and the extravagant adversary, so its seriousness seldom feels like a rebuke to anyone who came for entertainment. The balance will suit those who want Bond to remain a person when the action stops. Choose it when there is time to let Craig and Dench have their conversations.
