graphiceyeds

Typical TV movie-type bio on Fleming's life. Though Dance does a good job in the role (and even looks a lot like Fleming), the producers try to make the film seem like a pseudo-Bond film with the pretentious Bond film music intruding over scenes that don't require it, and showing Dance in Bond type scenarios, which of course Fleming was never in. At least it does not shy away from the darker parts of his life - his affair with a socialite married woman who would become his future wife; his affinity for sexual fetishes such as pseudo rape and whipping; the death of his girlfriend in an London air raid (she dies while on an errand to fetch his handmade cigarettes).

The period detail looks accurate and it was fortunate that they were able to actually film the Jamaica scenes at the actual Goldeneye estate. My other major fault with the film is the casting of Julian Fellowes as Coward. He neither looks like Coward or talks like him. It's a shame as Coward was a close friend of Fleming's and is such a historical figure.

There were so many better parts of Fleming's life and career they could have touched on, considering the large amount of historical figures he knew and worked with during that era of WWII and the Cold War. This seems like a watered down biography, and I think that the film's low budget probably had a lot to do with this. Hopefully one day PBS will do a proper job of Fleming in a miniseries. Until then, this will have to do. By the way, skip any of the other current film "bios" of Fleming. They are atrocious, mostly fictional and are a large disservice to the life of such a fascinating author.