It may seem unusual in today's technological era when music is available in many physical formats (CDs, MP3s, etc.) and from various sources (satellite, Internet, TV, radio, etc.), but there was a time when the format was limited to just vinyl and the source was only radio.
And in some places, the latter was also limited in that the government controlled what played, thus leaving those with a taste for something new and daring -- say rock and roll -- to turn to pirates. I'm not talking about Blackbeard physically attacking the powers that be to set the tunes free, or today's kind that copies and sells music and movies without permission.
Instead, I'm referring to those who decided to broadcast from just across any given national border -- usually from ships anchored in international waters -- to listeners ready, willing and able to hear to the illegal music booty. In the 1960s, that was quite common in and around the U.K., with various ships providing alternate programming to what the state offered.
Based on a number of such broadcasts rather than one particular one, "Pirate Radio" (a.k.a. "The Boat that Rocked" in Europe) sets out to tell the tale of one such vessel, the zany characters on it, and the government officials determined to shut them down.
Considering that it comes from the hands of Richard Curtis -- who penned the likes of "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" before adding director to his title with "Love Actually" -- I had high hopes for this flick especially since the trailer makes it appear it will be a fun and entertaining ride accompanied by some great, 1960s era rock 'n roll music.
The latter is certainly present in droves -- as it appropriately should considering the subject matter and storyline -- but it ends up becoming a crutch that the writer/director repeatedly turns to when it appears there's nothing else to do. Accordingly, there's montage after montage of everyday radio owners listening to the tunes (natch, done in multiple split screens as was oft used in the cinema back in that day), as well as the same playing whenever someone new visits the ship (meaning women, often in slight slow motion that's used to, well, I'm not really sure except presumably make the scenes appear cool).
In fact, and despite Curtis having a track record of smart dialogue and good character interaction in his past efforts, the most creative he gets here is naming those various visiting femmes after song titles -- such as Elenore and Marianne -- just so he can play the related tune as they're shown arriving in slow motion.
The rest is essentially broken into three elements. There's the coming of age story revolving around a young man (Tom Sturridge) joining the crew so that he can lose his virginity and find out which crewmember is his biological father. This is pretty much standard fare, with a few funny moments and interactions with other supporting characters (including the usually great Bill Nighy who's pretty much neutered here), but nothing remarkable, novel or memorable.
Another revolves around the rivalry between the ship's deejay star (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the return of the original most popular broadcaster (Rhys Ifans). This works slightly better, if only because Hoffman is such a great actor and Ifans is good at playing a sexual slime ball, but the writing ultimately leaves them high and dry.
The third -- that resides in its own storytelling universe and thus barely connects with the rest in terms of direct interaction -- involves a British government official (Kenneth Branagh) and his lackey (Jack Davenport) trying to come up with a way, short of literally torpedoing them, to shut down the marine broadcast. Decidedly the worst of the material, it's amped up (particularly Branagh's performance) in an apparent attempt to be zany, but it pretty much fails across the board (of particular note is having the lackey's last name being Twatt, and then repeating that ad nauseam -- what is this, middle school?).
The bigger issue, however, is that the film lacks focus, and thus feels as if it's simply meandering from one subplot to the next, relying on the great music and related listening montages to connect and carry everything. It certainly helps things be a bit more palatable (there's a fun closing sequence featuring rock album covers over the decades), but such reliance can only go so far.
By the time the film goes the "Titanic" route, many a viewer will realize it already sank long before the culmination of events, weighed down by too many tunes and not enough substance or viewer emotional engagement to keep interest afloat. One of Curtis' weaker efforts, "Pirate Radio" might have a good beat and you can dance to it, but it's about as dramatically involving and/or funny as any installment of Dick Clark's old "American Bandstand." The film rates as a 4 out of 10.
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