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Film review

Action, ahoy!

Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is a bit toned down in Part Two of the Pirates trilogy, but adventure keeps the story sailing along.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published July 6, 2006

[Disney photos]

Johnny Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow spends a bit less time onscreen in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, but co-stars Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom pick up the slack.

	Knightley and Bloom must find Jack and retrieve an enchanted compass to earn full pardons after the first movie’s adventures.

The joyous surprise of seeing Johnny Depp adding swish to swashbuckling is the only thing missing from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. We know Capt. Jack Sparrow almost too well now, the unique way he mumbles and stumbles through supernatural adventures that would curl most buccaneers' beards.

Jack's back on steadier legs, a result of cutting back on his rum intake after lovely Elizabeth Swann Keira Knightley destroyed his stash in The Curse of the Black Pearl, and perhaps because the character became so popular with children that semi-sobriety makes a slightly better role model.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, the boozy inspiration for Depp's woozy portrayal, doesn't appear in the sequel as originally planned, and there's a bit of him missing in Jack, too.

There's still enough going on in Dead Man's Chest to drive a scoundrel to drink, or help us overlook Jack's marginally better behavior.

The original's enormous success, including Depp's Oscar nomination, allowed director Gore Verbinski to concoct a procession of close calls and gruesome villains at least equaling the first film's thrills. Dead Man's Chest has a few minor problems coping with the middle-child syndrome of trilogies; Part Two essentially exists to set up a grand finale. But for sheer escapist fun, it's still superior to this summer's comic book heroism.

Revisiting The Curse of the Black Pearl (at least the final act) may be helpful to viewers, since Verbinski and his screenwriters confidently proceed with the saga. Elizabeth and her betrothed lover, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), face death sentences for assisting Jack's escape from the gallows in Part One, and the compass Jack consulted at the conclusion figures heavily in Part Two's plot.

Will is offered a deal: Find Jack, retrieve the compass for a British bully (Tom Hollander) and the trio will be granted full pardons.

A bit too slowly it is revealed that the compass is enchanted, always pointing toward the location of a treasure chest belonging to sea legend Davy Jones. Will tracks Jack to an island inhabited by cannibals who believe the pirate is their king, and they'll eat Will to prove it. Jack also needs something: a key, located who-knows-where, opening who-knows-what.

If Will finds the key, Jack will surrender the compass, but we know by now how fickle a pirate's promises can be.

Everything leads to ghastly encounters with Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the cursed crew of his ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman. That's when Verbinski's movie finds its scary stride.

The villains are supernatural mutations of man and sea creatures; Davy has octopus tentacles for a beard and lobster claws for hands, his first mate is truly a hammerhead and everyone acts fishy. There's more of the icky variety than the moonlit walking dead of Part One, topped when Verbinski tosses in the mythic Kraken as Davy's chief muscle.

Depp remains a magnetic presence, although Jack spends more time offscreen than in Part One. Knightley and Bloom fill the void with more backbone to their characters.

Even under all that undulating latex, Nighy creates a fearsome and slightly sympathetic villain. Numerous roles held over from the first chapter continue their solid work, with only minor progressions in character.

The chief attraction is action, and several sequences in Dead Man's Chest are tailor-made for the Disney theme ride renovations coinciding with the film's release. But this is smart action, often based on simple laws of physics employed by silent film comedians, rather than big booms and mass mayhem. Verbinski and his technicians deserve a lot of credit for resisting any impulse to repeat themselves while pushing the fantasy to another level.

Yet they still have one more voyage to complete, and the open-endedness of Dead Man's Chest is a minor, unavoidable fault. Part Three (as yet unsubtitled) was filmed concurrently with this one, so we only have to wait until next summer for the conclusion. Let's hope the filmmakers keep things as fresh and exciting, and someone will buy Jack a stiff drink.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Grade: A-

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgard, Jack Davenport, Naomie Harris, Tom Hollander

Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio

Rating: PG-13; adventure violence, frightening images

Running time: 150 min.

[Last modified July 5, 2006, 10:05:54]