Casino Royale (2006 film) the series, allowing them to show a less experienced and more vulnerable Bond. "Casino Royale" takes place at the beginning of Bond's career as Agent 007, as he is earning his licence to kill. The plot sees Bond on an assignment to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game; Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd, a treasury employee assigned to provide the money he needs for the game. The film begins a story arc that continues in "Quantum of Solace" (2008). Casting involved a widespread search for a new actor to succeed Pierce Brosnan as James
Casino Royale (2006 film) fifth best of the series, and chose Vesper Lynd as the fourth best Bond girl in the series. Some newspaper columnists and critics were impressed enough by Craig's performance to consider him a viable candidate for an Academy Award nomination. Roger Ebert gave the film a four out of four star rating, and wrote that "Craig makes a superb Bond ... who gives the sense of a hard man, wounded by life and his job, who nevertheless cares about people and right and wrong," and that the film "has the answers to all my complaints about the 45-year-old James Bond