Would Have Rather Watched a Movie About Pirates

Rating: 4/10 (11 November 2010)

Writer/director Richard Curtis got away with an awful lot in "Love Actually," mostly because that film was positioned as a fairy tale from the beginning, and so the parts of it that made me want to gag on their sweetness were easy to forgive. Such is not the case with "Pirate Radio," his borderline terrible movie about the committed men (and woman) who brought rock and roll to the people of England back when it wasn't allowed on legit radio stations.
To say that "Pirate Radio" is unsubtle is a monumental understatement. The counter culture heroes are presented as almost god-like figures of idolatry; the English government (represented by Kenneth Branagh, having fun but saddled with a terrible role) is just shy of looking like the Nazis in "Springtime for Hitler." The ensemble is full of good actors (like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy), but they are undermined by bad material, and the ensemble doesn't gel like it did in "Love Actually." Curtis wants us to take his story seriously, but everything's too jokey. The end of the film, when the pirate radio boat starts to sink, is especially bad.
The film's got good music, but I would have enjoyed the songs more had they not been matched so aggressively literally with the action they were meant to underscore (a character named Marianne leaves the boat, and we hear "Goodbye, Marianne"; a character named Elenor arrives, and we hear "Elenor." Get the picture?)
Grade: D+