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MOVIE: Die Another Day
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens,
Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, Judi Dench
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios
Reviewed by Louise Johnson
I'll just admit this right up front: I have a thing for Pierce Brosnan, have from the day I first saw him as Remington Steele. It would be hard for me to ever say anything bad about him. Fortunately, I don't have to. I've admitted my bias but I don't think it contributes to my saying that this twentieth Bond film is the best of them.
The introductory setup for the film was edge-of-the-seat captivating, sucking everyone in the theater in to the movie whole, not to release us until the closing credits rolled. The opening credits were trademark Bond, silhouettes of women dancing against a changing background. Since 18 months of torture had to be conveyed in order to make the rest of the story believable, the creators of Die Another Day chose the most tasteful way I can imagine - surrealistic snapshots of horrific tortures were faded in and out of the background, blended with the title tune surrealistically sung by Madonna. Then we're back in to the story. After being tortured for 18 months, Bond is traded to the West by North Korea in exchange for their agent Zao. Believing that Bond broke under torture and caused the death of an agent, M (Judi Dench of course) strips him of his 00 status and orders him detained. Naturally James has to escape and vindicate himself, which takes him on a journey around the world - from Hong Kong to Cuba, where he meets Jinx, played by Halle Berry, then to London, Greenland and finally back above North Korea for a final showdown.
I can't say enough about Halle Berry in this film either. She matches James Bond nearly step for step as a top US agent. Incredibly beautiful, sexy, athletic, smart and witty, she is the ultimate Bond Girl, grabbing your heart from the moment she walks out of the surf in her Ursula Andress bikini and twisting it a little in her escape from danger on a Cuban island. When she shows up in Greenland and ends up working with Bond to unmask and stop the power-hungry villan, the audience is rooting for her all the way. Berry plays Jinx tough and witty, and slightly vulnerable when she thinks it's all over.
Toby Stephens plays Gustav Graves, the uber villian who dies another day in a completely unexpected plot twist that some will detect only just before it's thrust upon them. Rick Yune embodies Zao, the muscle of the evil trio, and Rosamund Pike is the deliciously cold unexpected partner in their power-driven plans. John Cleese is wonderfully quirky as the new Q and the gadgetry is of course amazing.
The action in Die Another Day never lets up. I walked out of the theater shaking with adrenaline and euphoric, certain that it will be a long time until another movie affects me as much as this did. See it on the big screen, I'm sure that the terror of the showdown denoument will not translate fully to the television format.
© 2002 - Louise Johnson