DTS Spanish

We are in the mid-60s, when, during the glory days of the Stones, the Who, and other colossi of British rock, the BBC allows almost no airplay of said music. To the rescue comes a group of commercial pirate radio stations, broadcasting from ships off the coast. Priggish minister Kenneth Branagh is determined to shut them down, and our focus is on one particular ship, run by Bill Nighy, and boasting such luminaries as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Nick Frost as DJs. Onto this ship of counter-culture rebels comes a young Tom Sturridge, and this wet-behind-the-ears youth becomes the eyes through which we watch the various eccentric goings-on.

Director Richard Curtis is a dab hand at ensemble romantic comedies, as the sterling likes of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually more than demonstrate. But though he has a terrific cast here, including such regulars as the always watchable Nighy, this is a misfire. It is surprising, given some of the indelible characters in Curtis' previous films (notably Emma Thompson's role in Love Actually) that the female parts here are so woefully underwritten (the women in this film are little more than disposable sex objects). As well, would-be funny scenes of the farcical, slamming-door variety (such as the scene where Frost tries to get the virginal Sturridge to replace him in bed) are older than the hills and eroded completely flat. So the comedy, the odd line here and there notwithstanding, barely raises more than a mild grin. And the tone is so light and unconcerned that it robs the context of any real rebellion or vitality. This radio station might as well be a standard classic-rock denizen of the FM band for all the edge we feel. Then there's some laziness to the writing. If we are to believe this is circa 1966, why have someone anachronistically talk about “thinking outside the box”?