Gavin Logan reviews the second episode of Fleming…
While last week’s opener did a respectable job at seemingly setting the tone for the following episodes, teasing us with just the right combination of action and sexual accomplishment that we are so use to seeing from a Bond movie, Episode 2 smacks us in the face with it, but not necessarily in a good way. From now on the question of what is true and what is not shouldn’t come into play. Some spoilers ahead.
The episode started off well, once again establishing a connection between the author and the creation as Fleming nonchalantly drops a large stack of chips into the centre of the baccarat table, perfectly poised, waiting with steely eyes on his opponents next move. His opponent in question just happens to be a Nazi Officer, and with a swift flick of his wrist he turns his cards and gobbles up all of Bond’s…I mean Fleming’s money.
Later that evening, while Fleming heads to the little boys room after overindulging in alcoholic beverages in the hotel lobby with his quick witted assistant Officer Monday, he come across the dead body of said Nazi Officer, hovered over by a beautiful woman who reveals herself to be a Jew. Fleming, being the kind-hearted hero that he is (and stoically British) offers her his hand and escorts her out, pretending that nothing happened. Quite an exciting first act that seemed to promise more close encounters ahead. Not exactly. Much of the rest of the episode focussed on Fleming’s need to be hauled into action abroad (once again comparing himself to his brother) which comes into fruition when he is given the go ahead to visit France and destroy sensitive material incase of Nazi invasion. However while there, he takes matters into his own hands and blatantly lies to a leading French Admiral in his attempt to persuade him not to lend his fleet to the Nazi cause. It sounds like a decent plot point but in reality it doesn’t really deliver. Perhaps it was just me but nothing that Fleming did while in France seemed believable or actually important. Here is this one man, who’s own biographer Andrew Lycett claims “had no obvious qualification” for the role of Naval Commander, yet still seems to be pulling the strings in the office of his authority figure. Everything seemed to be moving just a little too fast. I have to think that the main purpose of most of these scenes was to show just how close Fleming came to death when a disgruntled refugee at a port in Bordeaux pulled a gun on him but is shot in the chest by Fleming’s subordinate.
Enough of the trivial nonsense, the real story takes place in those silent, intimate glances between Fleming and his future wife Ann O’Neill (Lara Pulver). The tension between the two isn’t exactly anything new since the first episode spent a fair amount of time developing the flirtation, but events spiral almost out of control when Fleming returns home from France to find his girlfriend Muriel lying dead in her apartment after a raid, the very raid that Fleming and Ann had shared a bunker during just the night before. Distraught (well as distraught as he will allow himself to be) and in need of some company, Fleming visits Ann at her home but doesn’t exactly get the welcome he is seeking. Conjuring all her insincerity and amplifying her manipulative sexual capabilities, the same woman who the previous night begged Fleming to comfort her, refused to show any genuine pity towards the death of a rival. The response elicited a shocking (and that’s quite an understatement) reaction from Fleming which involved his belt and her behind and a little bit of hair pulling. What happened next was just plain awkward to watch since it literally came out of nowhere. Fleming held her down and raped her. We’ll at least I think he did. The fact that she was smirking after the initial dose of pain might be a legitimate argument against rape and again Pulver was channelling her Irene Adler persona. I don’t ever remember James Bond being quite as violent during the act of sex.
Overall the episode felt a little flat. While I am interested in Fleming’s contribution to the War effort, since it’s such an obvious influence in his writing, I sense that going forward his private life behind the uniform is where the real excitement lies.
Gavin Logan – Follow me on Twitter and A-Z Movie Challenge.
Originally published February 20, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
