The Boat That Rocked

[Strawbs]

Watched this yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd say this is possibly Richard Curtis's best film. It's a very sophisticated script, using comedy in the most subtle way for the most part. There are still some obvious gags in there though to enjoy.

It's a little window into the lives of these band of DJs on a boat and that's where you get the real love interest of the film. The bond these guys have and their love for the music and their time on the boat. You get gradually drawn into this group so when a sudden turn of events happens you find yourself implicitly caring about them and even the boat itself. I was pretty much in tears for the last 20 minutes of the film.

Plus, the soundtrack is superb (with the exception of Duffy appearing over the end credits, utterly butchering one of my favourite songs). I have been humming The Kinks for the last 24 hours.

 

[Jon Williams]

I haven't seen it. It was panned by the critics and had a bad weekend at the box office. At the same time all the comments I've seen posted have been by people, like Strawbs, who really liked it.

 

[Booth]

I bumped into PSF member Curtinparloe last night and he was saying it didn't really work but had some funny scenes. Mark Kermode was saying the same kind of thing. He shouldn't have liked it because it was flawed but he found himself enjoying it. Perhaps Curtinparloe could elaborate?

 

[curtinparloe]

Perhaps I will...

I read the interview with Emma Hickox in Moviescope and she said "It was the most terrifying film I've ever had to cut because there was so much great footage. Even now I'm thinking 'did I leave anything on the cutting room floor?' which was fabulous." It's true, there's a lot of great stuff in there, but it's at the expense of a good story. The narrative is fragmented and the ship-v-government storyline is all over the place. I think it would work better if they cut it down from 2:30 to under two hours and have less pointless montage sequences, which are frankly only there as an excuse to play great tunes.

Then there are the performances. They're good, I've just seen them before. Chris O'Dowd, for example, is playing the same role as in the IT Crowd, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the same as in Almost Famous, Jack Davenport is Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean in different clothes.

I didn't like the cinematography either, which made the ship sequences (except right at the end) look like land and the land sequences look like the sea. I was told they shot it on a real ship, and I don't believe that for a second.

At the end of the day, the main reason for seeing it is the music. If it hadn't been about a pirate radio station it would have been unwatchable. However, a friend of mine said that "Richard Curtis films force you to cheer up," so that could have something to do with its popularity.

Nice to chat at Kino, by the way. It's been a while.