The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK/France/Germany/USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Richard Curtis

Cinematographer: Danny Cohen

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Sturridge, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Davenport, Talulah Riley Will Adamsdale, Rhys Darby, Katherine Parkinson, Chris O'Dowd

An 18-year-old boy, just expelled from an elite public school, is sent by his mother to live with his uncle, who runs the pirate radio station Radio Rock, on a ship anchored in the North Sea, in order (strangely) to set him back on the straight and narrow; whilst in London, a priggish cabinet minister makes it his life’s work to shut down all such institutions, in Curtis’s unevenly entertaining period piece, which makes the most of its likeable cast, excellent production values, and cracking ‘60s soundtrack, but lacks any real narrative drive, and features a number of rather feeble jokes. Iain.Stott