5 Years Ago, James Bond Pulled A Massive Course Correction — And Changed Pop Culture History
Léa Seydoux and Daniel Craig's lack of chemistry is kind of the point
There are many things that define a James Bond movie. The actor playing Bond, of course, but also the villain, the car, the theme song, and the Bond Girl. Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond featured one of the greatest Bond Girls in franchise history in Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, but women in his other films couldn't quite live up to that high standard. Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann certainly doesn't in Spectre. And yet, Seydoux returns in No Time to Die, making her one of the only Bond Girls to appear in more than one movie; she pulls off something special. Madeleine was an underwhelming Bond Girl in Spectre who didn't have much chemistry with 007. In No Time to Die, which came out five years ago today, that's kind of the point, and it's tragically poignant.
Madeleine is introduced in Spectre as the daughter of Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a member of the titular evil organization. White urges Bond to protect his daughter, and though they don't necessarily trust one another at first, Madeleine and Bond end up working together to take down SPECTRE, and they grow close. 2015’s Spectre has many problems. The opening set piece in a helicopter above Mexico City is terrific, but after that the movie gets way too bogged down in its own mythology, especially with the reveal that archvillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is Bond's adoptive brother. Madeleine is another problem.
Even though Seydoux said she felt the chemistry between her and Craig was "very strong," it doesn't translate to the screen. Seydoux, who is a decade and a half younger than Craig, is a talented actor who certainly looks the part of a Bond Girl, but there's no sense of connection between Swan and Bond. Perhaps it's because the two actors are lost in the movie's sub-par plot. Perhaps it's because their relationship starts uneasily, and they're working together against Spectre out of circumstance and convenience rather than any passion. They don't feel like lovers. Instead, they're colleagues.
No Time to Die turns this bug into a feature. After a flashback that shows Madeleine's childhood and the figure from her past who will become the movie's main villain (Rami Malek as the subtly named Lyutsifer Safin), the 2021 movie's action kicks off with Bond and Madeleine in Southern Italy, where they're going to visit Vesper's grave in the hopes that Bond can feel closure. However, when SPECTRE agents attack Bond and cause him to suspect that Madeleine was involved, he feels deeply betrayed. He leaves her, seemingly for good. That Bond is so quick to believe that Madeleine has betrayed him suggests that their relationship wasn't actually that strong. This opening seems to acknowledge that Madeleine's romance with Bond was indeed just a lesser version of his relationship with Vesper. What happens next, after the five-year time jump makes it all worth it, however.
When SPECTRE agents kidnap a scientist and gain control of a DNA-targeting nanobot bioweapon, Bond finds himself forced to work with Madeleine again, because she's Blofeld's therapist. The two are, understandably, very frosty towards one another, both having been hurt. Their lack of chemistry is deliberate. But, as the movie continues and Bond learns that he was wrong to suspect Madeleine — and that she has a young daughter that's obviously his — they begin to soften. It's not a passionate, exuberant romance, however. It's something much sadder. Their stilted chemistry reflects the fact that these two people are lamenting the life they could have had together. Craig and Seydoux's lack of on-screen chemistry suddenly feels appropriate, and the two are instead conveying an awkward grief of lost possibility.
James Bond at the end of No Time to Die, probably wishing he’d had a little more time with Madeleine Swann.
At the end of the movie, Bond is infected with nanobots that would target Madeleine and his daughter should he ever hold them again. Bond sacrifices himself to stop the bad guy, tearfully saying goodbye to Madeleine. This scene, like their relationship throughout the movie, totally works. The tragedy of Madeleine as a Bond Girl is that she wasn't a Bond Girl for those five years. She should have been, though, and Madeleine and Bond realize that too late.
