Knightfall Review: Swap Aston Martin for Mini with Low Rent and Gender Change

PBased on the old-school pun in the title – yes, the heroine’s name is Ros Knight – the latest film from savvy micro-budget producer Jonathan Sothcott is certainly optimistic about filling the void left by 007’s retirement from public life. Here’s the gender-swapped Bond some have been looking for: the adventures of a no-nonsense, tough-talking security officer (Janine Nerissa Sothcott) tasked with recovering a deadly bioweapon stolen from a shrunken Porton Down during the prologue. In truth, everything turns out to be somewhat low-key. This austerity advocate spends less on the kit than Broccolis typically spent on filling up one Aston Martin; It is symbolic that the Sothcotts’ favorite car is the most elegant of the Mini models.

It’s essentially Bond without the accompanying glamor, loitering around drizzly wharves and park-like country roads, in dim lighting that hopefully hides some of the more obvious budget constraints. What money there is has been spent wisely on human resources, on faces who can still look good in promotional material: a cameo by Michael Paré as shady character Felix Leiter, Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey as our girl’s troubled lover, Nick Moran underselling Colin Firth as an meddling bureaucrat. The choice of players is the nimble and characterful Ian Ogilvy as Ros’s estranged father, who helps determine where the real power lies on the chessboard and generally stabilizes scenes when things get too threadbare.

Despite the harshness of Logan Jones’ score, there’s nothing here that will give Eon sleepless nights. Director Ben Fortune keeps his troubled world domination plot dynamic and coherent, but the action scenes don’t build tension so much as they undermine the idea: Sothcott and Ogilvy stalk the garden in the dead of night, taking out militants beyond a polytunnel; The grand finale involves a Mexican confrontation in someone’s living room. What already seemed outdated in Bourne’s time risks becoming redundant in the era of Slow Horses, where homeliness is fully embraced and integrated. However, Knightfall does have a certain nostalgic charm; a bizarre vision of Bond in extreme straits, armed only with a license to kill time.