A nuanced assassin

Gosh, I loved this movie. Daniel Craig's handlers have more or less completed the morphing of James Bond from the wisecracking Sean Connery and sultry sex objects of half a century ago, to a more, um, nuanced 007 for the 21st century. To complete the makeover, Moneypenny is black, Q is a young computer nerd, and M is a deeply pained Ralph Feinnes. But the stars are less important than Bond's two great loves, the first being the Aston Martin DB5 he drove in his early years, and that he demolished except for its steering wheel. ("I told you to return it in one piece," Q recalls peevishly, "not one piece of it!") The other is his current love interest, Dr Madeleine Swann, surely a wink and a nod to Á la recherche du temps perdu. She is played by the endearing Parisian actress Léa Seydoux. In the end, of course, Bond drives off in the lovely DB5,accompanied by the lovely Dr Swann, and there is a strong hint that this is the last we will see of Double Oh Seven. Blue skies! — Dan Ford