Director: Gore Verbinski, 2003
Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom

On general release

IN THIS uproariously splendid pirate riff, Depp doesn't just embody the drunken sailor Jack Sparrow, he enlarges a straightforward antihero into a frigate sized homage to Keith Richards. He is so confident, so raucously ablaze, it goes far beyond camp into uncharted regions of boundless enthusiasm, tip-toeing inches from oblivion into performance of the year.

His tale unfolds at a thunderous pace, and there is a holdful of story to get through involving cursed buccaneers unveiled as skeletal zombies, stolen ships and kidnapped heroines.

BACKGROUND

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

• Pirates III: Bye-bye, captain

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

• I want to quit acting, says Keira Knightley

• Bill Nighy talks Pirates

BACKGROUND

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

• Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl

Last blast for Orlando the sea dog

‘No more trilogies!’ Orlando Bloom tells us, on the eve of the final Pirates of the Caribbean

Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

• Times Online Film Trailers

Yet Verbinski is never caught slicing and dicing his narrative into MTV-sized microchunks. He gives scenes and characters the chance to breathe and engulfs the camera in a sunlit holiday-brochure Caribbean as picturesque as it is preposterous.

Sophistication lies in the undertow -a discernable theme of the power of legend to distort reality. The rogue pirate Sparrow is hardly the sum of his reputation, but his ability to wear his fame carries a delicious actorly fudge about the vanity of celebrity. Wedded to effortless CGI, great supporting performances and a determination to stick to its genre guns make for that rarest of creatures: a summer movie that lives up to its promises.

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