Film analysis: How expository dialogue in ‘Casino Royale’ clues in the audience
Casino Royale expertly uses exposition through supporting characters to inform its audience through the machinations of poker.
Poker is central to the plot of Daniel Craig’s first outing as secret agent 007, aka James Bond.
Alas, poker isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Film News Blitz’s David Bason hails how Casino Royale guides the uninformed through this important facet of a 2006 classic.
Revisiting Casino Royale
Craig’s first outing as Bond was a back-to-basics triumph that made him an instant hit as James Bond and made Casino Royale a modern classic.
Based on Ian Fleming's 1953 novel that gave birth to James Bond, it’s an origin story reset of film’s most enduring franchise.
Not only does it serve as a great example to new James Bond custodians at Amazon on how to successfully reboot a franchise, Casino Royale also expertly guides the viewer through crucial story points.
The plot of Casino Royale sees Bond participate in a high-stakes poker game hosted by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen’s character Le Chiffre.
Le Chiffre, a financier of terrorism, is attempting to win the game of Texas hold ‘em to recoup losses of $100 million that he lost thanks to Bond foiling plans to blow up a commercial aeroplane to short its operating company’s stock.
License to inform
In the most basic of terms, the game Texas hold ‘em sees players dealt a hand of two cards, known only to them, with three cards dealt by the dealer for all players to see, community cards, which grow to five cards after rounds of betting.
The objective is to get the best five-card hand using a combination of the two cards at the player’s disposal and the community cards, with money put on the line, of course.
If that doesn’t sound like a perfect explanation, that’s because the writer of this piece, like many of the millions who watch Casino Royale in cinemas, isn’t a poker player.
So how does Casino Royale keep viewers hooked throughout the game.
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Well, beyond Craig and Mikkelsen giving extraordinary performances, reacting to the game their characters play, the audience is given two supporting characters to guide them through.
Enter Giancarlo Giannini’s Rene Mathis and Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd.
Mathis, a French secret service agent, is introduced to Bond ahead of the film’s central poker tournament as a guide and contact.
Lynd, meanwhile, is a British Treasury agent overseeing Bond’s $10 million buy-in to play in the tournament.
Like the audience, Lynd is no poker expert, but Mathis is clued in on the machinations of the game and here is where exposition becomes handy.
Exposition is a tool used in screenplays, where dialogue is used to convey ideas, explain backstory, plot details and more.
As Bond takes on Le Chiffre in the poker tournament, Mathis and Lynd watch on, and the French agent informs the Treasury contact and the audience about how the game is unfolding.
As the tension ramps up, music and camera direction work in tandem with Mathis’ dialogue, who informs Lynd through the processes of bluffing, betting and how Bond must navigate these elements to win the game.
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Without this simple guide, audiences unfamiliar with the game of poker could get lost, left to their own devices to understand whether or not Bond is making the right calls.
Amusingly enough, the game played in Casino Royale, the film, is different compared to the book.
In the original novel, Bond and his adversaries play Baccarat, a popular game in Asia, particularly Macau, but perhaps not as widely popular as poker, hence the decision to switch things up for this modern movie classic.
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