Skyfall does it better overall, but the naiveté of The World Is Not Enough’s simple sense of escapism makes it a bit more charming to return to, plus the shots of Bond getting to wreak havoc in ‘90s London without any of the gloom and doom of the Craig era remains an absolute blast.
Brosnan and Dench at Their Best
A movie marking a personal vendetta for both Bond and M has became common place during the Craig era, but it was a novelty in 1999. And in some regards, The World Is Not Enough remains one of the more unique renditions of this growing cliché. Whereas Craig’s Bond had a deep emotional attachment to Dench’s M, with the suggestion of her having groomed him as a troubled, bordering on sociopathic youth like a mother would a child, Brosnan’s Bond enjoyed a relationship with Dench’s M more approaching that of equals and colleagues—which made how they played off each other in this film uniquely interesting.
With exception to Ralph Fiennes’ Mallory in the last couple of Craig entries, the Brosnan era is the only time in the Bond oeuvre where 007 is the old seasoned hand with a foot in the past, and M is the face of the future. The irony of a misogynistic relic of the Cold War like Bond having a woman as his boss practically writes itself, hence how she addresses him with those exact words in GoldenEye. Yet from that frosty introduction Brosnan’s Bond has somewhere to grow with M as the two reach a grudging and, eventually, admiring respect.
That element comes to fruition in The World Is Not Enough, a movie where instead of treating M as just a bean-counter, or as a mother in need of protecting, Bond comes to see her as a real person and confidant. He recognizes she is taking it personal that her school chum (and ex-lover?) from Oxford was killed due to their mutual negligence. But from that recognition the two develop an unspoken trust and camaraderie. They have a mutual interest in redemption.
But then, much of the movie is a showcase for Brosnan’s Bond. In the ‘90s, he was celebrated as a bit of the platonic ideal between Connery’s aggressive swagger and Moore’s dapper silliness. Brosnan walked the line. After Craig entirely reinvented the character as brooding bruiser who grew out of his “blunt instrument” youth, Brosnan’s goldilocks approach was dismissed, particularly by online fandom who typically prefer the “seriousness” of Craig, or for that matter Dalton. Yet perhaps because I grew up in the ‘90s, I’ve always had affection for Brosnan’s lighter touch, which was often more nuanced than detractors would suggest. And that styling was never so bespoke as in TWINE. While GoldenEye easily remains the one great Brosnan Bond movie, as with most 007 actors he was still finding his interpretation of the character in the first outing.
By the time TWINE came around, though, the actor and producers knew exactly who this version of Bond was. He still has the charm and humorousness of both Connery and Moore, but there is also a wearied sadness and melancholy there. He is not a brooder like Craig (and probably like how Brosnan would have preferred to see the character written), but this Bond has lived through the Cold War, betrayals, and long empty nights. The charisma feels like a defense mechanism, and perhaps his weapon of last resort.