The World is Not Enough (1999)
Synopsis
An oil heiress is being targeted by the men who killed her father and she wants M(other) to come and protect her. Psych, she’s the villain! That’s what you get for being sexist and thinking women can’t plot in the name of oil domination. Oh, and Bond is there too.
Particulars
Director: Michael Apted
Writer/s: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein
Producers: Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
Stars: Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, Sophie Marceau as Elektra King, Robert Carlyle as Victor "Renard" Zokas, Judi Dench as M, Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones, Robbie Coltrane as Valentin Zukovsky, Samantha Bond as Moneypenny, Michael Kitchen as Bill Tanner, Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson, John Cleese as “R” and Desmond Llewelyn as "Q"
Budget: $135 million
Shot: Spain, France, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the UK and Pinewood Studios
Inspired by: Barbara Broccoli watching a Nightline report on the world's major oil companies fighting for control of untapped oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, plus Bond’s family motto Orbis non sufficit
Nostalgia’s really carrying the load on this one
The World is Not Enough (or TWINE as I’ll be calling it henceforth) is the first in a long run for screenwriting duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who would go on to write Die Another Day, all of the Daniel Craigs and the unofficial Bond films Johnny English and Johnny English: Reborn.
Their first outing was also the first Bond film I remember watching and, quite controversially, I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Its plot is refreshingly followable, it’s got a two tier villain system and it’s got an M focus that I love to see.
It also marks Desmond Llewelyn’s last appearance as Q before he metaphorically passes the baton to John Cleese and sinks into the floor of Scotland’s MI6 headquarters. Quite upsettingly, Llewelyn died three weeks after the release of TWINE in a car crash, a sick joke from the universe considering the running gag of Q’s annoyance at Bond destroying every car he’s given.
Vale, Major Boothroyd. And now, my reasons for enjoying TWINE.
The mystery set up
The film opens with British oil tycoon Sir Robert King visiting MI6 to collect money that Bond retrieved for him, after which he gets fucking blown up because the notes were laced with explosives. The shock of some billionaire getting terminated inside MI6 is a strong opening, with the intrigue heightened by the fact that he was a mate of M’s.
Bond’s ensuing chase of the henchwoman on the Thames, which ends with her hot air balloon suicide and a shoulder injury for Bond that’ll last the whole movie, make up the longest pre-title sequence in the series until No Time to Die came out. I found this setup and transition to the title credits pretty strong – not quite to the level of The Spy Who Loved Me but certainly getting there.
The score and song
I’ve always been a fan of Garbage’s ‘The World is Not Enough’; it’s catchy on its own and with the transition to title credits, it feels really confident. David Arnold, who first scored Tomorrow Never Dies and would continue until Quantum of Solace, co-wrote the song with Don Black and I think it’s on par with their other collabs ‘Thunderball’ and ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. Arnold’s score is an evolution of that 90s action movie electronic sound he gave us in Tomorrow Never Dies, of which I’m a fan.
As for the credits, I like a lot of what Daniel Kleinman does here. The oil on bodies really works; the disco balls, less so.
Dial M for Mother
As you’ll have gleaned by now I am utterly obsessed with Judi Dench as M and any film that decides to give the character a personal subplot is good in my book. I love getting to see that softer side she tries so hard to conceal and that Elektra is able to exploit; it gives M a vulnerability I could only have dreamed of in the earlier films, where M is just a dude who sits at a desk and gets cranky with Bond from time to time.
I also like that it’s a woman exploiting that soft side rather than Robert Carlyle’s Zokas, who very much functions as the red herring villain. Interestingly, the role of Zokas was initially offered to Javier Bardem, who would go on to have his own personal subplot with M in Skyfall. See? The work started here.
A hot lady villain
Barbara Broccoli said "With Elektra, Bond thinks he has found Tracy, but he's really found Blofeld". So true, girl, because Sophie Marceau’s performance is much more in line with the soapy Blofelds of Bonds past than with a franchise-great Bond girl played by Dianna Rigg.
While Marceau is hamming it up a little (as is her right), she’s so bloody gorgeous that lines like “I’ve always been able to make men do what I want” are more forgivable because where’s the lie? I love the way they dress her, I love her house and its lush interiors and I love the loaded cruelty with which she waves her damsel in distress card in Bond’s face, given that I think she can sense Bond has experienced great loss before and uses this to her advantage.
Michael Apted’s wife Dana Stevens did an uncredited rewrite on the script to strengthen the female characters. While she may have gone a bit far with one of them (more on that later), I think she did good work with Elektra.
And using the segue of good versus bad work, here’s the stuff that TWINE gets wrong.
The rest of the film once Elektra is gone
The film’s biggest strength being its primary villain is also its great weakness; after Elektra is gone, we’re left with Bond and Denise Richards dressed as Lara Croft trying to diffuse a bomb on a submarine.
I’d like to be explicit that my problems with Denise Richards a) playing someone called Christmas Jones and b) playing a supposed nuclear physicist are missteps belonging solely to the casting director and not to Denise Richards.
Having watched her on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I know her to be a chill, cool lady who would be the first to admit that she doesn’t fit the role. To add insult to injury the film puts her in a white singlet for her underwater scenes. I see what you’re doing, Michael Apted. Not cool.
Other flaws include the underuse of Robert Carlyle’s villain, especially considering he’s got a bullet lodged in his brain and can’t feel pain; some sillier action sequences like a flying fox and helicopter parts exploding in Looney Tunes 3D fashion; and a sex joke ending that harks back to the bawdier Moore films and that I wanted to shield M’s eyes and ears from.
All in all, The World is Not Enough is a decent Bond film with some elements that work really well and some that do not. For me – and this is really saying something – it’s the highlight of the Brosnan era. Make of that what you will.
RANKING CATEGORIES (70%)
Bond execution = 7
Villain = 8
Bond girl(s) = 2
Song = 7
Opening titles = 6
Plot/action/gadgets = 6
Franchise identity = 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (30%)
7/10