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Kiera Knightly and Johnny Depp star in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was one of those Hollywood miracles, defying conventional wisdom at every turn to become a major Hollywood hitter back in 2003: an expensive summer movie based on a Disney theme park ride, with a two-hour-plus running time and an unproven action star in Johnny Depp. Did I mention it was about pirates?
And yet not only was it a hit, Depp’s Oscar-nominated, SAG award-winning role as Captain Jack Sparrow was an irreverent quasi-work of performance art. Depp repeatedly said he based his performance as the hapless, leisurely, and sexually neutered pirate on immortal Rolling Stone Keith Richards. He was certainly able to replicate the rocker’s attitude, if not his libido, and true or not, it made for fine copy.
But that was then, and this is now. The long-awaited sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest needs to deliver more, not less, than its predecessor. One would think that Depp, co-stars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley and director Gore Verbinski would take advantage of the opportunity and create a sequel (filmed in tandem with a third entry, slated for release next summer) that was better than its slight antecedent, and yet all we end up with is recycled pap.
Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio pocket away their plot so as not to scare away the lions’ share of their fans, but here are a few of the crumbs. Picking up shortly after the end of the first film, Will Turner (a blah Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (sprightly Knightley) are kidnapped and imprisoned on the eve of their wedding by Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander). Beckett needs them to get to Sparrow, his enemy in a quest for a chest with an important booty, belonging to Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), a tentacle-faced seafarer who happens to be undead.
The three bumbling heroes go on various chases and split up in various permutations, few of which make sense but are definitely fun to watch. However, they easily lift out and could be part of any other movie. Verbinski surrounds himself with amazing technicians – the CGI effects and reptilian costumes and make-up truly are works of art, and Dariusz Wolski’s island cinematography is top-notch as well. But he has no idea how to construct a movie. Chest could have been at least a half hour shorter, and with no true beginning or end, the film serves as mostly filler till Part 3.
Depp has his fun, but the audience knows what to expect here, and he doesn’t have any new tricks up his sleeve. Still, he fares far better than his secondary stars. Neither Bloom nor Knightley has the charisma to carry an epic adventure, nor do they have much chemistry with one another. The entire time they merely seem to be going through the motions.
The supporting cast fares much better. Nighy and Hollander are clearly having a ball. Stellan Skarsgaard, in the integral role of Davy Jones’ crew member Bootstrap Bill, gives an even more fleshed-out performance for anyone willing to pay attention. But I doubt it. This movie isn’t so big on the details.
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