Joel on Film

The Bluff is a fitfully rousing pirate adventure with one major cosmetic difference in how it operates: The violence here is often bloody and occasionally gruesome. That’s certainly a welcome change, as swords slash through flesh and bullets enter bodies with a bit more savagery than the norm (a family friendly series about pirates on the Caribbean sea does come to mind when thinking about the “norm”). In other ways, the movie is fairly typical of this genre, and ultimately, it’s a little too devoted to formula and a sense of the routine.

There is some potential within the two central characters at conflict with each other, although the advantage is certainly with Ercell Bodden (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), an unassuming woman with a mysterious past. She now spends her days as mom to Isaac (Vedanten Naidoo), sister to Elizabeth (Safia Oakley-Green) and—most importantly—wife to merchant vessel captain T.H. (Ismael Cruz Cordova), whose involvement in the plot is what gets things going. It would be rather criminal to reveal the extent of Ercell’s past, so let’s just say that legend calls her “Bloody Mary.”

The nickname or moniker or unofficial alias is quite important to the other key character here, a ruthless pirate named Captain Connor (Karl Urban), whose one-track mind is on finding and reclaiming the gold he plundered, before it was violently stolen from him. It’s not too difficult to put the puzzle pieces together here when one reaches the important plot development of Connor arriving at Ercell’s island home, laying waste to the men defending their homes there and seeking the treasure he so assiduously wishes to locate. This review will reveal another important clue, which is that Ercell is quite capable of defending herself and her home.

That, of course, is where the violence arrives, displayed in the film’s first big set piece in which Ercell utilizes the environment of her small and comfortable home and its many tables and chairs and cooking utensils to make mincemeat of Connor’s crew (Temeura Morrison plays the head henchman of this group with all the gruff energy we’ve come to expect). Variation defines the later exhibitions of that violence—mostly in the weapon department, as swords and guns repeatedly prove not to be sufficient in the fights. This is all entertaining enough, staged and executed by director Frank E. Flowers as if a kid is let loose in a candy store.

Eventually, though, formula does take over, as Connor’s search for the gold leads to an extended chase through a forest, over a ravine and up a mountain, with Ercell warding off all attempts to kill her by simply dodging gunfire and hitting every target (except her main one, of course, who at one point literally moves out of the way of a bullet). There are a few surprises leading into the climax, such as how far Ercell is willing to go to prevent Connor taking the gold, but it basically just leads to an excuse for a final showdown that, inevitably, doesn’t have much genuine tension. The whole hero-vs-villain trope is as old as fantasy fiction, and this is not the place to look for any real subversion of that trope.

The performances are especially solid from Chopra Jonas, who convinces entirely in the physical parts of her role and services the more sincere part admirably, and Urban, who delights in stretching his villainous capabilities. The characters, though, never quite escape their archetypal nature, especially once that irreversible shift leading into the climax occurs. Ercell simply becomes another capable action heroine, and Connor is revealed to be the same, old pirate-movie villain of a sort we’ve seen too many times.

The Bluff does occasionally get at some sort of subversion of its genre tropes in attempting to de-romanticize our usual view of pirates: They aren’t heroes, but criminals, insists one character, and indeed, that reveals itself to be true through their ruthlessness here. It’s not quite enough to elevate this movie beyond its status as an occasionally rousing but broadly generic piece of swashbuckling entertainment.

Rating: **½ (out of ****)