Becoming Bond: One part rousing tell-all and one part ultra-cheesy yet strangely earnest reenactment, the life story of the "one and done" Bond himself provides a lot of fun, shenanigans and even a bit of heartbreak, all well before Lazenby storms into the office for his audition. Those looking for this to be a kind of "fly on the wall" look at the filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service will likely be tremendously disappointed, as that part of the documentary probably accounts for around 20 minutes of the briskly paced 95 minutes, and, as one can imagine in a chronological retelling, comes pretty much at the end. Before then is the story of Lazenby himself, from a young hell-raiser in Australia to going halfway around the world to England to chase down the woman he loves, only to go from used car salesman to in-demand male model in the process. As told by Lazenby himself, displaying a rather palpable charm as he relishes his recounting of all the crazy things that happened in his life, though not without some tearful detours along the way, it's a great profile of a complicated man told in a very uncomplicated way. Helping him out is how the filmmakers here decided to recreate those episodes of Lazenby's life, which come to life with all the realism of a TV soap opera, complete with wild overacting, bad outdoor compositing and an inspired list of guest stars (including, cheekily enough, former Bond girl Jane Seymour). Granted, this is definitely a much more R-rated kind of soap opera, but verisimilitude doesn't seem to be a chief concern here, especially with all the fourth-wall breaking the segments pull off to match Lazenby's own anecdotes. In theory, these bits should sink the film much further than they do, but they find just about the right pitch to maintain throughout that helps augment the unlikelihood of the real life tale, helping to elevate the material that it's working with through the sheer strength of its corny enthusiasm. It's definitely not an approach that can and should work for similar tell-all documentaries, but it fits this one like a glove. Lazenby himself doesn't seem to believe that he had it in him to be the next Connery, but the life-affirming and inspiring note that the film ends on with the long, strange trip he took to get there makes for a hell of a good argument that one doesn't need to be in order to come out ahead. Great entertainment with a great message!
