Right off the bat I will say it: Pirate Radio is NOT MY KIND OF MOVIE. But, oh well, it has a great cast, so I thought I would give it a whirl.
When it began, I almost said 'I told you so' to myself. But, then the plot really kicked in and the characters all came to life right on the screen and boom, before I knew it, I was hooked. Not by the music (most of which is pretty much the kind of music I like), not by the 60s culture, but by the characters.
You REALLY get involved and attached to the characters...all of them. They all have their own quirks that really give each of them panache...and then all of them together give the movie a special touch that resonates with audiences...because people will all know characters like this.
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In a cast led by Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (the token American), other British actors including Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost and even Oscar-winner and icon Emma Thompson all lend their own spice to add color and vibe to the film that already rocks with 1960s British pop.
The story is based in reality in the 1960s when Britain had bans on rock radio stations. So, to get around the law, tons of pirate stations popped up all over, most on the waters surrounding the small island. Not that the politicians couldn’t find them, but the bureaucracy just had no grounds to shut these little stations down...until now.
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Being a character-driven story, this film is less about WHAT happens and much more about WHO it happens to. Mostly told from the point-of-view of Young Carl, a young man who’s been sequestered off on this ship in the middle of the North Sea by his mother in order to learn a lesson, all of the characters become equally dear to us...we love some, we hate some, we empathize with some, we are jealous of some. Make sure you check out this little gem of a film that is part romance, part drama, part comedy, part historical, ALL FUN!
Pirate Radio: 2009, 116 minutes, rated R, directed by Richard Curtis, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Davenport and Rhys Ifans. The Niles Public Library owns this title on DVD.
