Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
Director: Gore Verbinski
Rated: M15+
SOME of us know that the Pirates of the Caribbean is a ride at Disneyland.
Most of us probably think making a movie based on an amusement park ride is shameless, if not pointless, self-promotion. And most of us are probably right, so we write the film off as exploitive and crassly commercial.
Then we notice that Johnny Depp, a serious actor if ever there was one, has been cast in the lead. Aye, me hearties, this might turn out better than we expected.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is built on an age-old love story formula where the princess, destined for the prince, falls in love with the pauper instead. But the princess, in this case the Governor’s daughter (Keira Knightley), has been kidnapped by a band of sinister pirates.
Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) must make a pact with the not too dastardly, and rarely sober, pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) to save his love. With the help of Sparrow’s cunning, Turner chases his love across Caribbean seas, while her father, the Governor (Jonathan Price), chases Turner – who has stolen the fastest ship in Her Majesty’s fleet. Somewhere along the way, a pirate captain is redeemed and restored to virtue. Well … sort of.
This is not a great film, but it is wonderfully entertaining. Depp, who admitted to borrowing liberally from Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards in the construction of his pirate captain, swashbuckles with the best of them and steals the show.
Bloom holds his own as the too rash, but talented, hero, and Knightly is winning as the breathless damsel in distress (but mind her left hook).
As the ghost pirate baddie, Geoffrey Rush is disappointing in that he is neither scary nor menacing.
If you are familiar with the Disneyland ride, you will be impressed with the clever homage paid occasionally to its scenes. If not, you will enjoy the film’s ride all the same.
