Johnny Depp's flamboyant performance in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is nearly worth twice the price of admission. Depp plays Jack Sparrow, a bungling buccaneer seeking revenge and a kidnapped damsel from a scurvy crew of undead pirates led by the dreaded Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).
Depp pulls off a wonderful bit of piracy himself, stealing each of his scenes with a portrayal which, he claims, is based upon Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. You can see the influence in each fey, fumbling affectation and hear it in Jack's mumbled dialogue, which can be brash, defensive or giddily sensible, depending on the moment. A summertime blockbuster is the last place moviegoers expect to find magnificent acting, but this is one glorious exception.
Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) co-stars as Will Turner, a blacksmith who persuades Jack to rescue Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), the woman of his dreams but not his social class. At first it seems that Barbossa nabbed Elizabeth purely for ransom from her father (Jonathan Pryce), a wealthy governor. The actual reason evolves in fascinating fashion with an Aztec curse, family skeletons and the pirate crew's grisly reaction to moonlight.
This is the first PG-13 movie to be released by Walt Disney Pictures, and nightmares for some young viewers are to be expected. Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Mouse Hunt) doesn't get to the supernatural stuff until an hour into the film. Then again, he doesn't need to, since the set-up is more accomplished than many full-length features we've seen this summer. Then Verbinski goes the Ray Harryhausen route with marauding decomposed corpses (including Barbossa's pet monkey) doing dirty deeds. His film has it all: comedy, romance, thrills, chills and especially Depp, who boldly puts the "swish" in swashbuckling.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl opened in theaters Wednesday. A review published that day in the St. Petersburg Times received a hearty yo-ho-ho and an A- grade. You may read the review online at www.sptimes.com.
