no time to die: double helix double o

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service out of You Only Live Twice, NO TIME TO DIE takes this Ian Fleming double helix and modifies and manipulates it into a James Bond epic that is, quite simply, precision engineered entertainment.

Working on their seventh script in the series, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have teased the fabric of Fleming’s final novels and woven the cinematic threads of Daniel Craig’s tenure in the role of James Bond to produce a scenario that shakes, shocks, stirs, surprises and satisfies.

Blofeld is back and the biological and botanical basis of his diabolical plans from the novels mentioned are part of the plot. The building blocks of life, DNA, become weapons of mass destruction, the genesis of genocide. But there’s more than a twist of lemon peel in the mixing of the culminating cocktail of literary and cinematic Bond.

NO TIME TO DIE is the longest film in the franchise and has the most protracted pre title sequence, another double helix of past and present that proceeds a fractured and fragile future explored in the main body of the narrative.

Character development partners with spectacle and there’s no time to spy a sneak look at your watch from gun barrel signature to end credits.

Daniel Craig has matured magnificently in this role. In his debut as the debonair double O, Casino Royale, he queries M with the line “So you want me to be half monk, half hit man?”.

For a wee while in NO TIME TO DIE he is a bit of a monk, but soon he gets to run amok from Cuba to disputed islands in the Sea of Japan.

And there’s a cheering aspect to NO TIME TO DIE of getting the band back together. Ralph Fiennes returns as M, Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Ben Whishaw as Q, Naomi Harris as Moneypenny, and Rory Kinnear as Tanner.

Also, we are reacquainted with Madeleine Swann, a Galatea formed from Fleming’s Tracy Draco and Kissy Suzuki, and Christoph Waltz as Blofeld, both so much better here than in Spectre.

New characters include Lashana Lynch, as Nomi, designated 007 on Bond’s retirement from the Service and Ana de Armas as CIA operative, Paloma, a couple of literally kick ass performances, with de Armas doing a disarmingly comic turn of faux Dutch courage.

Cold veined villainy is given curdled psychopathology by Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin, whose own history is double helixed with Bond, Swann and Blofeld.

David Dencik plays the seemingly benign boffin, Obruchev, with a bumbling veneer that veils a venomous streak, and Dali Benssalah gives muscular menace and a genuine creepiness to head honcho henchman, Cyclops.

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga delivers one of the most effective and affecting Bond movies in the entire series, mindful of tradition but unafraid of forging ahead. He helms the entire adventure with panache and aplomb.

Linus Sandgren, the Academy Award winning cinematographer of LA LA LAND, seduces with a stunning palette, from sun drenched Jamaica to snowbound Norway.

Hans Zimmer’s score lifts John Barry’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service theme and the song We Have All the Time in The World and amalgamates it with No Time To Die’s title track to underscore the high emotional stakes at play.

Mark Tildesley’s production design pays homage to Ken Adam’s legacy, from almost hallucinogenic Havanna hot-spots to paradoxical villain lairs with paradise veneers concealing sinister undertakings.

Daniel Kleinman in his eighth title design also pays homage to Maurice Binder’s original title design of Dr. No, another detail that adds to the overall enormous enjoyment of NO TIME TO DIE.

The film uses a quote, attributed to Jack London and requisitioned by Fleming in You Only Live Twice – The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

NO TIME TO DIE illustrates the proper function of a fulsome film- to have life, to be more than a time waster, to use its time, thoughtfully, intelligently and intriguingly, to engage and entertain.

Richard Cotter