Beginning with an astonishingly exciting pre-credits boat chase along the Thames that ends with Bond rolling down the side of the Millennium Dome, the pace never lets up. But this film isn't just packed with excellent set pieces (though it is), it also finds room for testing character moments and emotional dilemmas, foremost among them being Bond's betrayal by his lover Elektra - Sophie Marceau's Bond girl is one of the most interesting ever encountered, even before she turns into the movie's cold-hearted villainess. She's stunningly beautiful and seductive, and it's easy to see why Bond falls for her charms, for the audience does too. The moment 007 and we realise that she's actually evil is a real shocker not often found in the sometimes safe hands of a Bond movie - it didn't have this impact when 006 proved to be the baddie in GoldenEye. Her death scene is very low key (for Bond) and packs an emotional punch more often reserved for the deaths of 'nice' Bond girls (and Bond's wife).
On the flip side you have Denise Richards' decidedly Lara Croftesque Bond girl (and here 'girl' is very appropriate - Elektra is really a Bond woman), a nice bit of eye candy at first glance, but then she's revealed to be a nuclear scientist. I'm less concerned with how believable Denise Richards is playing a scientist than I am with how, on reflection, she doesn't actually get a great deal to do. She seems to exist to diffuse nuclear bombs, or to tell Bond (and us) how to diffuse nuclear bombs, and then just hangs around looking pretty. I suppose next to a multi-layered character like Elektra, most Bond girls would suffer, so I don't think Richards' does anything wrong. Robert Carlyle's Renard, the sub-baddie really, is a bit of a red herring as he turns out to be Elektra's pawn, and so I don't think he has much to do. It's a great performance, but not a particularly memorable one. I don't think it helps that Carlyle looks so puny and weak here - that's not what Bond villains are made of! Rounding out the villains is a weird turn from Goldie as a henchman with gold teeth (actor's own), who plays Robbie Coltrane's lackey. Coltrane reprises his role as Bond's occasional enemy-cum-ally from GoldenEye for (sadly) the last time, and he's an absolute joy. The exhiliration of the helicopter buzz saw attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory is heightened by Coltrane's comic performance throughout.
In this movie, Judi Dench's M gets in on the action more than previously as she is kidnapped by Elektra and proves to be a resourceful MI6 head. Any Bond movie that features scenes with Judi Dench is great in my book! And Bond also has excellent interplay with Moneypenny this time round. The final scene featuring Desmond Llewelyn's Q is especially poigniant given that this would be his last Bond movie before his untimely death an age 85 in a car accident. It's incredibly moving when Q tells Bond that he should always have an escape plan. John Cleese has a good stab at Q/R in this and Die Another Day, but for my money he plays it a bit broad - certainly too broad for Daniel Craig's era, so I very much doubt he'll be back in the role. Pierce Brosnan continues to impress with his suave, although oft vulnerable spy - he's given some wonderful moments to grow Bond as a character here, and he often does so through subtle looks or gestures, for example in an allusion to his wife's death, and in the way he handles Elektra's betrayal. Throw in a cracking Garbage title song and Bond-theme drenched score, and The World is Not Enough proves to be a damned near perfect James Bond movie that excites and moves on every level.
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