The Incomplete Guide to Tomorrow Never Dies, Richard Curtis, and That Christmas
In which Bond takes on a media mogul and a media darling returns for more Christmas nonsense
Tomorrow Never Dies in 2024
by Vanessa Burke
Welcome back to the pacy end of my James Bond reviews - I apologise if you’re sick of James Bond. I pledge to do better with my next review series in 2025! You can check out everything I’ve written so far in our Substack archives, comparing how ethically dubious or righteous the films are with today’s views, how realistic their plots are, and how easy it is to follow in Bond’s footsteps.
Sheryl Crow serves with this theme song; it’s very moody, but wait until the next film for really moody music! The opening credits return to a purely abstract visualisation of timepieces, X-rays, motherboards, and of course women, which forecasts the themes ahead.
Carving out their space
Bond continues to professionally surround himself with strong women. M’s lone female presence in command situations has her counterparts underestimating her, but she gets lines in about her advantages compared to men’s shortcomings, and comes up trumps by avoiding war that her male opposites were rushing to get into. Similarly, Wai Lin’s competence as a foreign agent echoes Major Amasova and Dr Goodhead’s appearances. Thus it is more cruel to still see Carver mock her martial arts skills.
Sadly, we fridge another Bond girl associated with the villains. Paris Carver was doomed from the moment Bond walked into the Hamburg reception. Lying about their past compounded her fate, but her husband seemed uninterested in having anything in common with Bond (relishing in a jab about this during their final showdown). Paris didn’t help herself by turning down potential support from James (though we cannot know how this might have gone without Bond taking personal responsibility) as she doesn’t want it if she can’t have him - a narrow mindset to save her own life.
Bond was slammed as a sexist, misogynist dinosaur in GoldenEye, but the franchise made a bit of progress here. (3/5)
Murdoching up trouble
The film starts with M overseeing facial recognition on Bond’s initial mission. Nowadays this is put into practice by smaller fish, such as the monitoring carried out by the Metropolitan Police. Also, don’t be surprised by the confidence of Bond piloting that Russian aircraft. Nearly 50 percent of American men responding to a survey thought they could do so if air traffic control guided them - and Bond already knows his way around a cockpit.
Thanks to my professional experience, I have more of an insight into the plot of this film. Government being concerned about the optics of taking actions has become ever more relevant since the release of this film - not only does the traditional press have a vested interest, but now that social media users can become citizen journalists, everything is under scrutiny.
The only moment this is undermined is when Bond quips to Rupert Murdoch stand-in Elliot Carver before his final moments about the first rule in journalism. Bond suggests this is “Give the people what they want”; while there is no set rule, I would suggest far more important (and what could have prevented Carver’s fate) is to “never become the story”. (5/5)
From Hamburg with haste
Alas, many of the films locations were shrouded in confusion, filmed in one place, yet set in another. Interestingly, one of these was very familiar for those who have watched The Man with the Golden Gun, as Phang Nga Bay stood in for Ha Long Bay.
But to start at the beginning, Bond finds himself in Oxford after the opening credits, and promises to be at the Ministry of Defense in Whitehall in 30 minutes by car, after Moneypenny cajoles him. The most direct, fastest route for the post-morning commuter traffic would be via the M40 and would take 1 hour and 25 minutes. Some serious speeding rules are being broken!
In Hamburg, Bond ostensibly stays at the Atlantic Hotel, where prices go as low as €237 per night (under £200, currently). Avis will rent you a BMW for around €333 (£274) for the shortest duration I could find for a return booking from Hamburg airport. Finally, if you want that HALO feeling, you could try some Thai skydiving businesses (as the country stood in for Vietnam), though I don’t know if you’ll feel safe paying only 1,250 baht, which is less than £30. (1/5)
Tomorrow eventually comes
The Bond franchise was cashing in on the popularity of Hong Kong action films, casting Michelle Yeoh from hits like Police Story 3, and known for doing her own stunts. Unfortunately, the timing of its release meant that it was in the shadow of Titanic, which would become the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. While Tomorrow Never Dies didn’t perform poorly, it didn’t reach GoldenEye’s heights, signaling a rockier time ahead for Brosnan’s Bond, as producers chased bigger twists and action pieces to capture the movie-going audience. (3/5)
That Christmas
by Elliot Wengler
Christmas films, or at least, making a film that seamlessly becomes part of the Christmas routine is a surefire way to ensure a legacy. No matter how unhinged Michael Caine becomes, we will always love him for his epic take on Scrooge in Muppets Christmas Carol (which, thankfully has When Love Is Gone restored when you click on the ‘long version’ on Disney+ these days). Poor Macaulay Culkin suffered reputational damage after his troubled post-Home-Alone life, but remains everyone’s favourite for his winning performance, and his crime spree is nothing compared to a certain fellow cast-member’s political and legal choices and difficulties.
Richard Curtis has a mixed legacy in this department. Love Actually remains his best-known film, even though it has been reassessed as having many flaws. Originally heralded for its epic storytelling across a huge and delightful ensemble cast and many many characters, almost every story centres the male gaze (women lack agency beyond the men staring at them), and a cut LGBT storyline adds to the problems noticed upon reassessment.
Recently, Keira Knightley has spoken of her displeasure about being objectified, citing Love Actually as a key source of it. She was only 17 when she took on the job, but Curtis inadvertently revealed, or at least, retconned, that he considered her playing age 23 at the time to justify her casting, under intense questioning from… his own daughter.
Richard Curtis is a skilful writer, producer and director, and I can still enjoy Love Actually, as well as some of his great works like Blackadder, Vicar of Dibley, Four Weddings, About Time and his single contribution to Doctor Who, the masterpiece was Vincent and the Doctor. However, it's under the cloud of The Boat That Rocked and Yesterday that I approached That Christmas, Netflix’s new animated feature from Locksmith Animation, a Camden-based animation studio that has the ambition to be Britain’s answer to Pixar.
Another Curtis Comeback?
There’s a lot arguing in favour of That Christmas. A diverse British cast of all the talents, from Brian Cox’s Santa down, there’s a great and good of family favourites: Bill Nighy, Jodie Whittaker (who continues to be very good in everything that she’s in when she’s not The Doctor), Fiona Shaw, and lesser-known but equally loveable talents of Sindhu Vee, Alex MacQueen, and Rhys Darby round out the village of Wellington-On-Sea.
The reason I’ve spent so many words on Love Actually so far is that this feels like a spiritual successor to it, having a lot of characters in a village, all of whom are connected by family ties and the odd love interest. However, unlike the adult rom com, this is kids film, and most of the characters are children.
Maybe that’s why it failed to capture my attention, the theory being that kids are rarely captivated by characters younger than themselves, and I am nothing if not a big kid. The one connection for all of the kids? It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa’s carefully choosing how to help them in their personal problems with who gets what in which stockings.
The children of Wellington-On-Sea are all at school under the intimidating Mrs Trapper, and are introduced in Bernie’s modernised (to the point of confusing and comically disastrous) nativity production; full of diversity jokes like the three wise women instead of the three wise men. One of the boys, Danny, is shy, and has a crush on Charlie, whose twin sister is committing pranks left, right and centre and risking naughty-list status. Danny’s mum, Mrs Williams, is a nurse, stuck on shifts and unable to be there for Danny in person. The whole village is soon under a snowstorm so incredible that half of the parents can’t get back into town from a Christmas Eve wedding as their minivan gets stuck under ice.
So far so quaint. It’s a film of two halves, quite literally. It’s based on three children’s stories by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb, The Empty Stocking, Snow Day and That Christmas. I wonder if it would have worked better as a three-part anthology or miniseries, because I enjoyed half of the stories, but struggled with the half where a group of kids are together in a barn without their parents due to the weather chaos. It would let me pick and choose what to follow.
There is some charming storytelling throughout, particularly the character arc of the twins, one of whom is mistakenly left an empty stocking by Santa. The story arc between Danny, an academically struggling and lonely boy, and Mrs Trapper is also heart-tugging and delightful.
The animation is good, but nothing dazzling. It’s all a bit basic, especially compared to everything else on offer. At home is where this belongs; it wouldn’t have dazzled on the big screen. Despite only being 92 minutes, it does not feel tight, nor like we’re exploring new ground. Locksmith haven’t really worked out their distinctive look in their first two features yet, or, if they have, it’s not all that unique.
As I said, making a Christmas movie is a good bet for Locksmith Animation this early their studio’s history, it’ll be clicked on for years to come. Hopefully, it will entertain kids and families for many years and be the foundation of something more exciting in Locksmith’s future.
That Christmas is on Netflix now. Love Actually is on Now/Sky cinema now.
Is Richard Curtis schmaltzy and wonderful, or a deeply shallow writer? Let us know in the comments!
It feels a bit like I’m talking to myself, but I’m replying to your bit, Elliot! I think Richard Curtis is overrated, to be honest. My favourite Christmas movie of this type is The Holiday by the flawless Nancy Myers.