There is a moment in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides when Jack Sparrow says, “There should be a captain in there somewhere.” And by God, there is. There he is clambering ropes, trees, rocks, the limits of suspended disbelief, and making you believe even without the rather tame 3-D effects and the endless visual chicanery that Johnny Depp is one of the last living stars on the planet who can transfigure anything into rollicking joy. Even what most joyless critics are dismissing as just another Disney “theme park ride”  (And there really is a Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride that Walt Disney created around 1967). 

 The question begging to be asked here is, “What indeed is wrong with a theme park ride?” Isn’t a roller coaster ride any day more enjoyable than an arm chair critique acrid with the smoke of a bitter cigar and damp with stale cynicism? Depp in the Caribbean franchise (and not all of the films have been uniformly good)  is one of the most entertaining cinematic characters ever. Someone who reminds you with every quirky misstep and operatic shudder and crackling one liner, just why we go to the movies.

We go to see someone who can empty us of every day ordinariness and bring us to the edge of cliffs, plunge us down waterfalls, walk us through fire and make us taste sea salt with every gulp. Without Depp, the whole premise falls flat though in this particular outing, he finds a heroine worthy of him. Someone who can match him spark for spark,  sardonic gaze for defiant eye lock, pungent indifference for, “You still love me, don’t you?” Penelope Cruz has such delectable defiance whenever she confronts Sparrow with a past hurt she has not forgiven and he too confesses that she had once inspired “stirrings” that do not usually get past his sea-salted disdain for “feelings.”                                                               

There is also the brilliant Geoffrey Rush, flawlessly freckled, if there is such a thing, hobbling around on a fake leg (that he also keeps an emergency supply of hard liquor in, just in case), gesticulating, chewing his lines like he was biting spiced meat off an animal bone of choice.  There is Ian McShane, tanned and menacing, body and soul steeped in languorous evil and just the pleasure of watching these actors in the same space is worth the price of a  ticket.

 The film inspired by On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers has a semblance of a plot. Everyone who is anyone in the movie wants to get to the fountain of youth. The kill-joy Spaniards want it,  the corpulent King George (played by Richard Griffiths from the Harry Potter series) wants it, Hector Barbossa (Rush) with his vengeance hungry soul wants too. And yes, Blackbeard (McShane) wants it as well, to live forever on the seas and run his dark empire with the help of disfigured zombies and an uninspired, dispensable crew.

 There is much to enjoy visually in this Rob Marshall outing (Gore Verbinski has moved on to direct Depp in the Nickelodeon delight, Rango). The sight of the less than honourable and yet unpredictably sentimental hero jumping out of palaces into moving carriages, carpet bombing enemies with coconuts, leading a shady crew through mermaid infested seas and jungles like a  jauntier, funnier version of Indiana Jones to a trickle of water that can steal a life and buy years.

 A subplot creates an almost but not completely engaging romance between a mermaid (wrenchingly beautiful French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) and a missionary (Sam Claflin trying to fill in the gap left by Orlando Bloom but not quite there yet). And ofcourse, there is the hate-love, love-hate equation between Sparrow and Angelica (Cruz) who spar verbally and literally, are willing to sell each other out for what they want but still would put their life on risk to bail the other out. 

 On the surface, the film is just a madly exhilarating caper but look closely and you find a subtext if you care to find one, about the search for what matters to us most. What Sparrow really wants is his life aboard his beloved Black Pearl. Angelica wants to save the soul of her damned father. Barbossa wants to be the master of his own ship and his fate again and the preaching missionary really wants to save and be saved by love. There is a sense of urgency in all the characters to live the lives meant for them and what we take from the film is a wonderful aftertaste of an adventure that we would like our lives to be.

And when Sparrow says, “You know that feeling you get when you’re standing in a high place… sudden urge to jump? I don’t have it,” don’t believe him because when push comes to shove, he will jump. And so will we.  

Reema Moudgil is the author of Perfect Eight. (http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-reema-moudgil-book-9380032870) . More on Story Wallahs. Other books by Unboxed Writers in our Store