Master and Commander
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: ***** Five stars
Get ready to go sailing on a tall ship!
"Master and Commander" is an excellent movie of a most unusual type. It isn't particularly about the plot, although the plot - a cat and mouse game between a French warship and a British warship on the far side of the world - is a dandy. It isn't particularly about the characters, although the characters are many and diverse and absolutely beautifully portrayed, from the "military to his toenails" Captain Jack Aubrey to the "I'm a doctor, not a soldier, dammit" ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, to the various young (so young!) officers in training, the older seamen, even the cook. They were so well portrayed that when battles started, I found myself gripping the armrests, fearing for the safety of these people.

But the movie ultimately doesn't seem to be about the plot or the characters, per se. It's a movie about how it was to live as a sailor on a tall ship far out at sea during the Napoleonic era. Director Peter Weir is a master at the contained environment (think "Witness" and "The Truman Show"), and "Master and Commander is ultimately another in that series. Life on the "Surprise" is so beautifully depicted, and with so many rich details, that I walked out of the theater still half on that ship.

Now that's genius.

I highly recommend this movie. Even if you think you're not interested in sailing movies or war movies or period pieces, go see it anyway. It's a gorgeous piece of work.

32 days until The Return of the King!