POC: Dead Man's Chest

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2006)

Johnny Depp is a pure delight. I was worried that his performance might fall off in this sequel, that he might be a shade bored as he had "done that." Not a bit of it. His character, if anything, is richer and more graceful. Whenever he is on the screen, this movie soars. And the writers have added a romantic and marginally heroic sensibility to Captain Jack Sparrow, which Depp incorporates deftly into his performance without blurring any of the sharp edges which define the lovable pirate rascal he created in the first film. Depp is a masterful actor-- perhaps the best we have in American film today. A modern-day Chaplin--less pathetic than the Little Tramp, a bit more openly self-interested, and capable of dropping in a heartbeat from the antics of a comic buffoon to the darkly poetic awareness of one who has consciously cast his life upon the seas of chance in an attempt to conjure up a reality to clothe his abstract ideal--"freedom.' His only current rivals--in my humble opinion--are Anthony Hopkins, Merle Streep, Chris Cooper, and Hilary Swank. It seems ridiculous to observe of a character born of a film inspired by an amusement-park ride, but Captain Jack Sparrow could eventually become Johnny Depp's signature character. Brando is remembered for Stanley Kowalski and Vito Corleone. DeNiro will be remembered for Jake La Motta and Travis Bickle. Gable is remembered for Rhett Butler and the reporter in It Happened One Night. Bogart, despite many brilliant performances--in The Caine Mutiny, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon and The Petrified Forest to name a few--will inevitably be remembered as Rick from Casablanca. Hopkins will always be, in our memories, Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. For Johnny Depp, who has long since worked his way into our hearts with such brilliant portrayals as Ed Woods and Edward Scissorhands, our collective memory may focus more and more on Captain Jack Sparrow. Perhaps it is because for the first time Depp seems truly liberated as an actor. We do not have a sense so much in Pirates of the Caribbean that this "actor" is drawing a bizarre but believable "character" out of a hat --one more dazzling Johnny Depp "specialty" made to order--but rather more a feeling that here our boy is playing it pretty close to the bone. Jack Sparrow, as bizarre as he is, feels more real than any Depp character I've ever seen. Maybe this is because in Pirates he's not trying to carefully delineate a portrait that fits some exact, already-defined "character"-- Scissorhands, James M. Barrie, Gonzo, Donnie Brasco. Sparrow is Depp's own creation--there is no model he needs to constantly refer to as he shapes his performance. So, he can relax. He can, dare I say it, be himself. And the more he is "himself," the more creative freedom he has to do his work as an actor. The more Depp finds self-expression through Captain Jack Sparrow, the more real the performance becomes. At some point it becomes very difficult to separate the actor from the role, and that is the point at which a real performance begins. We never for a second lose sight of the fact that we are watching Johnny Depp play a character, and we never feel that that character is unreal--and there is no conflict. Somehow, Captain Jack Sparrow and Johnny Depp exist in the same moment and together they make one fascinating entity.
The rest of the movie is fine--a little overdone in the costumes and some sets and special effects. The plot is unfocused and pointless--they have to be doing something for two-and-a-half hours. There is the corporate threat of the East India Company to counterbalance Captain Sparrow's quest for freedom, and, in the end, nothing much is resolved and there are plenty of loose ends to be taken up in the sequel.
Of the other performances, Keira Knightly's Elizabeth seems to me to be the best. Some of her scenes with Depp are so good they seem about to lift the movie into a realm far more real and moving than an audience at an amusement ride would have a right to expect. She does very well. And the octopus guy is pretty good too. Orlando Bloom is just that--and he does it well. The two pirates from the first film--the short, balding one and his sidekick with one eye--begin to wax philosophical in this film. One is reminded every so slightly of the gravedigger scene in Hamlet, which possibly inspired the writers. If so, please give us more. Those two are turning into something special and they are very funny. Their debate about vowel pronunciation is a little gem.
More depth of character. I know that's not a sentence, but that's what the film needs. With the exception of Mr. Depp, the master, and Miss Knightly, the apt pupil, (and the two aforementioned pirates) no one seems to be doing much except saying the lines and running around. The actor playing Mr. Norrington is trying, but he seems a bit confused about where to go with things. Still, his good guy/bad guy character seems like fertile ground. Is he being held back by the director? In the next Pirates sequel the director would do well to try to let his actors explore a bit more. Johnny Depp gets to do what he wants because he's the "money," but if the others had a chance as well, I can't help feeling the final film would be much more satisfying.
Despite all I've just said, I still give the movie a 10. Why? Number one, Johnny Depp's performance. Wonderful. Number two, Kiera Knightly's performance. Much stronger than the first time out. Number three, the wild silly fun of it all.