By hiring Michael Apted -- known for helming character-driven films, not action extravaganzas -- as director, Eon opens up the formula a bit. There's actually some emphasis on drama to go along with the usual spectacular stunts. No one will mistake TWINE for "Hamlet," but James Bond actually has to agonize on occasion and isn't a automation who always makes the perfect decision. There have been flashes of this in Pierce Brosnan's two previous 007 outings -- particularly his reaction to Paris's death in "Tomorrow Never Dies." Apted, however, has brought out more of this.

TWINE definitely is Brosnan's best performance in the role. Bond is now his and he wears the role like a perfectly tailored Saville Row suit. Brosnan is charming and amusing when he has to be, but you know his Bond is hard and willing to kill when necessary. During his initial encounter with the terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle), you believe it when Brosnan's Bond displays anger.

The rest of the cast, with the exception of Judi Dench's M, didn't seem quite up to Brosnan's speed. Carlyle and Sophie Marceau were fine but weren't exceptional. Denise Richards as nuclear scientist Dr. Christmas Jones at least wasn't embarrassing but her delivery of lines seemed to get flatter as the movie wore on. (I'll avoid the obvious joke here about why she got cast.) At least we avoided seeing a rerun of Tanya Roberts in "A View to a Kill," where another supposedly intelligent character was made to look ridiculous. Perhaps it's a case of Richards exceeding low expectations, while Carlyle and Marceau didn't meet high expectations.

The movie has better luck in the supporting cast. Robbie Coltrane, reprising his GoldenEye character, is a big plus. Dame Judi makes the most of her expanded role. And Desmond Llewelyn's scene as Q was touching (but not maudlin), playing off the audience's expectation this is likely his last appearance. John Cleese, well, was John Cleese. If you like him, there's no reason to change your mind.

Finally, there were little touches that added a bit of the Bond soul. I particularly approved of the portrait of Bernard Lee's M that could be seen in at the secondary MI6 Scotland headquarters in Scotland. It's an example of how small things can make a viewer feel a connection between the current Eon product and the classic Bonds of the 1960s. Eon has made a big push to sell Bond to younger audiences, a necessary move, but touches like these are appreciated.

TWINE isn't perfect. The pre-credits sequence involve Bond going to Spain to see a Swiss banker. Evidently the decision to film in Bilbao was made entirely to take visual advantage of the spectacular Guggenheim Museum. In an earlier draft of the script, Bond went to Geneva, a place you'd be more likely to find a Swiss banker. Some of the action scenes also have this "visuals first" mentality and go on a bit too long. You could have cut three to five minutes from the caviar factory sequence and still have had an exciting scene.

Nevertheless, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli apparently did conclude 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies" had gotten a little too formularized. While I gave that film a positive review, I did raise the question of whether Eon had restricted its writers and directors too much. Michael Apted doesn't have the leverage of a Steven Spielberg but he did help expand TWINE's horizons. Here's hoping Wilson and Broccoli are encouraged to do more of this in the future.

Copyright ©1999 by William Koenig