Strife on the ocean wave in a Boys' Own romp

Although I was once an aficionado of seafaring novels from GA Henty to CS Forester, I freely confess to having read not one of Patrick O'Brian's highly regarded series of Napoleonic naval warfare novels; so there will be no comparisons between the authorial page and what director Peter Weir has put on to the screen.

Very simply, this is a terrific Boys' Own adventure in the world of water. The sea battles between Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey's ship the HMS Surprise and the larger, more heavily-armed French ship the Acheron they are pursuing are conveyed with ear-splitting, bonecrunching authenticity; the crew members from the tousle-haired blonde child midshipman Lord Blakeney (Max Pirkis) to the grizzled Able Seaman Joe Plaice (George Innes) are appropriately characterful and not over-familiar faces. But this is more than just a ripping yarn.

The enduring friendship between Russell Crowe's warrior Aubrey and the ship's surgeon and naturalist Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) provides the core conflict between the worlds of action and reason, predator and healer, past and future.

Their colliding philosophies provide the fulcrum of the film, in much the same way as Dr Watson's erudite placidity acts as a counterbalance to Sherlock Holmes's intellectual showmanship.

Both Crowe and Bettany, who worked together on A Beautiful Mind, strike an attractive balance of lightness and seriousness, with Crowe relishing Aubrey's raucous love of awful jokes - including one with a punchline about the "lesser of two weevils". Driven by a script that captures not just character but wit in abundance, Weir's film is both a throwback to the heady romantic adventure films of Michael Curtiz and Raoul Walsh, and a thoroughly modern overhaul in respect of historical, geographical and meteorological accuracy. Never have waves appeared more lethally awesome or fogbanks more pregnant with menace.

A sterling, stirring movie, though girlies may flinch at the scenes of shipboard surgery that are sonically and visually gruesome. An extra ration of grog all round.

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