Peter Weir (1) (1944–)

A solid film with a beautifully immersive depiction of a British naval ship in the Napoleonic wars, and with a good many excellent actors populating the deck. The film is also a bit of an accomplishment on the sheer basis of (seemingly effortlessly) spending the entire first half of the running time without even seeing land at any point, and nearly being over entirely before we hear as much as a line of dialogue spoken by someone not on board the ship. This really puts you in the boat with the crew, so to speak, making the ship your world much as it is theirs. Frequent life and death stakes aside, though, it is for the most part a somewhat languid character drama, which perhaps lessens the enjoyment for the average viewer. But there is definitely a sense of forward momentum even so, and many moments of humanity, humour and heart to enjoy on the way, if you manage to let yourself be engrossed enough in the story to care about any of it. So, in short, if a character-driven Napoleonic naval story is up your alley, I suspect you'll like this rather a lot, but if that sounds a bit dreary, this movie is unfortunately unlikely to convince you otherwise.… (more)