Prior to last night, if anyone asked me to name my favorite James Bond actor, I would have said "Timothy Dalton".

Now, I haven't exactly been a student of Bond -- I tend to find films in which the protagonist does not change to be uninspiring -- but I did legitimately enjoy The Living Daylights (co-starring Dalton and Olivia d'Abo's mother) more than any other Bond film. Plus, I once heard Dalton described as the thinking-man's Bond because he "always looks like he's trying to figure out a math problem."

As of today, however, I would say "Daniel Craig". As you might have already guessed, last night I finally watched Casino Royale and, as you might have also guessed, I loved it.

Here we are presented with a young Bond unlike any we've seen before. I wouldn't go so far as to call him unsure but I would call him unformed. And during the course of the picture, we see him carved out of rock until he emerges in the film's final shot fully formed as "Bond, James Bond".

Early on Bond is struggling with his fiery emotions and the demands from his employer, M, that he operate with a cooler head.

Bond
You want me to be half monk, half hitman.

M
Any thug can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation and judge the situation dispassionately.

Later, after he has been put through the ringer:

M
You don't trust anyone, do you?

Bond
(tersely)
No.

M
Then you've learned your lesson.

And what exactly is it that puts our hero through the proverbial ringer? Apart from a savage round of testicular torture, he falls in love. So much in love, I literally rolled my eyes when he's confessing the poetic depth of his feelings.

And yet the connection he felt with "Vesper Lynd" (I prefer to think of her as Monneypenny) is wholly believable; the incredible moment of stillness they share in the shower as she desperately tries to wash the blood from her first kill off her hands has all the hallmarks of a genuine connection: the proper, poised woman is utterly decimated and finds in Bond that which she sees herself as lacking.

Later, when she seemingly betrays him to the bad guys -- and he must subsequently watch her drown in a metal cage from which he cannot free her despite intense effort -- Bond's feelings for her turn to rage and we think that Bond's "trust no one" arc is going to end on this note.

But just before he emerges fully-formed in the film's last shot, M reminds Bond that dispassion includes accepting that life cannot be packaged into tidy, digestible, understandable bits. She tells him what Bond cannot see through his flared emotions: that Vesper did not betray Bond, that her 'betrayal' was the price Vesper chose to pay so that Bond could live. Far from betraying him, she sacrificed herself for him.

In the end, Bond must make peace with his mixed emotions -- love, gratitue, devotion, rage -- and carry on as though he has none.