Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

• Review: *** ½ (out of ****)
• Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg
• Director: Gore Verbinski
• Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert
• Length: 143 min.
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For action/adventure violence)

The days of DouglasFairbanks and Errol Flynn are long gone but the types of swashbucklingadventures they had are still around. Pirates of the Caribbeanreturns to the days of grand adventure and danger on the high seas.

Johnny Depp stars as JackSparrow, a lascivious drunk whose exploits as a pirate are renownedthroughout the Caribbean. Now, having been abandoned by his crew, hegoes in search of a new ship and crew to take to the seas with andcontinue his nefarious ways. The catch is that as a pirate, he's takenas a liar, a cheat and a thief, not to mention having a warrant out forhis arrest. Even his attempts to save Governor Weatherby Swann's(Jonathan Pryce) daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) from drowningdon't save him from imprisonment.

The film opens in theplot's past as young Elizabeth, accompanying her father to see, helpssave a young boy, the only survivor of a vicious battle with a pirate.There, she takes a pirate coin from his body to prevent her father frominstantly killing the pirate-child. She never returns the gold coin tohim and keeps it hidden from view until the present. Meanwhile, the boygrows into a man under the adoptive care of the town's weaponsmithwhere he learns two crafts, sword making and sword fighting. WillTurner (Orlando Bloom) is deeply in love with Elizabeth and is onepoint in a complex love triangle that also involves Governor Swann'sfavorite officer, Norrington (Jack Davenport).

While Sparrow isimprisoned, his old crew, now headed by Captain Barbossa (GeoffreyRush), comes to town searching for the last piece of pirate gold thatwill remove a horrid curse that has befallen them. They abductElizabeth and take her off to return the gold to its rightful place andperform a ritual that will return the crew to normal. The only problemis, she can't help them break the curse and the crew is forced to go insearch of the right person to lift it.

Depp gives an outstandingperformance as the smooth-talking, vile and unlucky lead. Easily hisbest performance in years, Depp shows a great deal of acting range inthis role, one that could have easily been stereotypical and corny. Therest of the cast expand in talent because of his presence but seldom rise tohis ability. Rush is a suitable captain, he chews his lines and spitsthem out in a perfectly antagonistic way. Bloom, hot off the screen inthe Lord of the Rings trilogy, has a lot to live up to. Hisperformance is far inferior to his role as Legolas but has the makingsof a screen heartthrob. Knightley is perfunctory at best. Herperformance is neither interesting, nor particularly good. Being theonly woman in the cast makes her job very difficult and she fails inmost of her attempts to play the strong heroine.

The overall design andlayout of the film is fantastic. Capturing a bygone era can be adifficult task and with such a standard genre to work with, it is evenmore difficult to make things stand out without looking tacky. Thecostumes, sets and cinematography help keep the ambience where it needsto be. The editing is fast-paced when it needs to be and not so slowthat it drags. Atypical of action-adventure films, no individual shotfights with another to have its moment of glory and every shot lastsjust long enough for the viewer to make out the details and move on.You get to see every detail of the fights while still feeling the perilof the characters.

Pirates of the Caribbeanwould be nothing without its story. A potential misstep was in themaking when Disney decided to adapt their legendary amusement park rideinto a feature film. This was a relatively old ride that, whileenchanting for millions of visitors, didn't have much to go off of fora story. Screenwriters Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie andJay Wolpert took a very risky bet with their adaptation and managed tocreate a believable, fast-paced, storybook adventure that keeps theaudience intrigued and delighted from beginning to end. Director GoreVerbinski recognized the potential and developed an amazing cinematicvoyage within the world of piracy.

Pirates of the Caribbeanis a wonderful film that will tantalize and delight audiences of anyage. Destined to be one of the biggest movies of all time, Pirateswill endure long after the genre has been pillaged by every other filmcompany out there.

-Wesley Lovell (September 20, 2003)