The World Is Not Enough (Film Review)

1999 MGM
Directed by: Michael Apted; Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Bruce Feirstein
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, and Judi Dench
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 128 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

Bond and MI6 defeated! After James Bond is tricked into bringing a bomb into MI6 headquarters, businessman Peter King is killed in the massive blast. Bond chases the triggerwoman across the Thames River with the intent to find out who she's working for, but she commits suicide by hot air balloon explosion, injuring Bond's collarbone in the process. Now MI6 is afraid that King's daughter, Elektra, will fall into the terrorist bomber mastermind's crosshairs. The main culprit is Renard, an anarchist who once kidnapped Elektra for ransom, and who, because of a bullet he took in the process, no longer feels pain. Bond is sent to Elektra's Azerbaijan-based villain and soon finds himself falling for what feels like a kindred spirit--someone who uses their body and violence to survive. However, all is not as it seems, and Bond soon finds himself in the middle of an oil-grabbing scheme involving nuclear weapons...and a deceitful Elektra.
25 years ago, I left a The World Is Not Enough theater-screening unimpressed. I enjoyed the stunning pre-credits sequence, involving an incredible boat chase on the River Thames, but the rest of the film left me cold. I was less than a month from my 18th birthday, and while I appreciated the aesthetic beauty of Denise Richards, I did not appreciate her role in the film as a nuclear scientist named Christmas Jones. I was also bummed out that the film didn't heavily feature a car chase like the previous film, Tomorrow Never Dies, did. Most of all, I was disappointed that while the film toys with a very dark fin de siècle take on Bond, the ending is as happy as ever. Well, that was 25 years ago. I can now appreciate The World Is Not Enough far more.
First, to what I didn't like back then. Despite containing some of the darkest, coldest moments in a Bond film, this movie, like many Bond films before it, falls into some camp. Denise Richards, bless her heart, and I mean that in the literal nice way and not the secret mean way most people do when they say it, isn't exactly believable in her nuclear scientist role. Many of her line readings are dry and wooden. She looks beautiful though, and that beauty put a lot of Gen X butts in seats back in 1999, which is why she appears in the film in the first place. But while Richard's character may be the film's weakness, she doesn't completely ruin The World Is Not Enough. In fact, some aspects of the campy nature of her character, particularly when it comes to the insanely over-the-top double-entendres regarding her name in the film-ending love scene, are endearing and enjoyable now. What's more enjoyable now, though, is realizing that the film around her character is actually quite good.
The love triangle in which Bond unwittingly finds himself here works a lot better for me now that I'm 43 and have experienced some betrayal and heartbreak. As Elektra, Sophie Marceau is frankly perfect; enigmatic, dark, mysterious, and highly alluring. Marceau (and director Michael Apted) brings out the best in Pierce Brosnan, and the third time Bond gives his best ever performance in the role here. Holy cow, does Brosnan get dark in his final scenes with Marceau. It's riveting stuff. As Renard, Robert Carlyle brings his expected stamp of quality, menacing when Renard is mocking Bond for treading where he's already walked, but later strangely vulnerable when he realizes Bond may be giving Elektra something he can't--Bond can both feel, as well as completely turn off his feelings at the drop of a hat. Renard simply can't feel. Again, there could be a much darker Bond film here, without Richards, that would find Bond winning the mission, but losing everything else. I've had to let that non-existent film go.
Instead, there's a Bond film here with stunning and inventive action scenes (at one point Bond has to face down helicopters carrying chainsaw blades!), a remarkable attention to detail (check how much the injured Bond favors his shoulder in those action scenes!), incredible production value (there's an ancient tower jutting out of the Caspian Sea that has an elegant mansion on top and a submarine bay on the bottom!), mostly great performances (again, Brosnan is better than ever and Marceau is incredible), a great supporting cast (Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Desmond Llewelyn, Samantha Bond, and John Cleese!), an incredibly lush and invigorating musical score and theme song (thanks, David Arnold and Garbage!), and solid writing (the seemingly convoluted plot unfolds nicely upon rewatch). The World Is Not Enough is far from the best Bond film, but also far from the worst. For me as a Bond fan, an average Bond movie, which The World Is Not Enough most certainly is, still works! And hey, at least it's not No Time to Die!