Film Review: “Skyfall” (2012)

The third installment in the Daniel Craig Bond cycle is a haunting yet tightly-wound spy melodrama.

Having finished both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, I decided to keep going with my immersion in the world of Daniel Craig’s James Bond and watch Skyfall. And, to sum it up in a few words: I loved it. In fact, I think I would go so far as to say that it’s my favorite of so far, featuring as it does a stellar (and unsettling) performance by Javier Bardem and a lot more screen time for Judi Dench’s M than we usually get. All of that makes for a tightly-woven spy melodrama of the most exciting sort.

The film’s plot is set in motion when Bond, on assignment attempting to procure a hard drive containing the names of numerous secret agents, is shot (accidentally) by Eve Moneypenny, on M’s orders. Having survived (barely), he’s eventually brought back into the fold to try to figure out who stole the hard drive and why. He finally discovers that the mastermind is none other than Raoul Silva, a former agent who was abandoned by M and has set upon destroying her.

As he has since his first appearance in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig brings his usual mix of sensitivity and brutality to his portrayal of Bond, and his icy Nordic beauty continues to grab the camera any time he steps into…