I am one of the benighted many who must review Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World without comparison to the series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. Therefore I can only say that director Peter Weir does a good job of conveying much of the military-nautical information without recourse to words, most notably in the opening sequence. Unfortunately for partisans of Dr. Stephen Maturin, when a character is needed to ask a landlubber's expository question, it is Stephen who must answer the call. The film achieves an entertaining balance between the brutish (the grate of a bone saw during an amputation, some alien gray gelatin served to the men belowdecks) and the picturesque (cooperative Galápagos wildlife, Russell Crowe at ease in a flowing poet's shirt). And there are many, many splinters.

posted: 10:43:09 PM