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Once upon a musical time, people did not wander around in cocoons created out of earbuds and iPods with personalized playlists.
At night, they tucked boxy transistor radios under their pillows and during the day, got together with friends and danced, danced, danced as disc jockeys played the newest Rolling Stones or Supremes or Beach Boys tune.
- Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge.
- Rating: R for language, and some sexual content.
In "Pirate Radio," set in England and the waters off shore in 1966, Richard Curtis celebrates that exuberance in a way that will make you feel young again -- if you're of a certain age. The ensemble comedy also will make you mourn those albums you sold for a song at a garage sale or still own, with no way to spin them.
The story opens in 1966 in the heyday of British rock 'n' roll when the government-backed stations broadcast only two hours of rock and pop a week. But, anchored just outside United Kingdom territorial waters were pirate radio stations sending out tunes and deejay talk 24/7.
Curtis filters and fictionalizes the times with Radio Rock, home of the coolest and craziest disc jockeys who call an old tanker in the North Sea home. It's as if they're living in a floating frat house, with nicknames, beer, board games, storytelling, sexual exploits and rivalries.
This is where the free-spirited single mother of innocent 17-year-old Carl (Tom Sturridge) has sent him. The radio station owner (Bill Nighy) is Carl's godfather, and he runs a very loose ship.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American known as The Count, whose supremacy is threatened when the legendary Gavin (Rhys Ifans) returns to the mike. The rest of the ranks are filled out by likely and unlikely lady killers, dim bulbs, men who live for music or -- in one case -- news and weather, and a lone woman, a lesbian cook.
Think a kookier, lustier, water-logged, British, testosterone-driven and R-rated version of "WKRP in Cincinnati."
These rogue rockers are in the sights of Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), a humorless politician who will stop at nothing to kill pirate radio. He enlists an officious assistant in his efforts, which build to a cataclysmic, comic conclusion.
"Pirate Radio," originally called "The Boat That Rocked," integrates the music into the story in brilliant fashion. It's a joy to see how Curtis uses songs such as "So Long Marianne," or "Elenore" or "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" or "Dancing in the Street."
Curtis, the writer-director of "Love Actually" and writer of "Notting Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," infuses "Pirate Radio" with obvious, enormous affection for the time, the music and the real players who inspired the fictional ones.
He's always seemed like the director version of a party host who doesn't want the fun to end, accounting for the length of "Love Actually." Curtis makes Dormandy a cookie-cutter villain whose version of a black hat is short, Brylcreemed hair and horrid mustache. "Pirate Radio" has one twist too far-fetched to buy and a fairy tale ending.
But, having said all that, Curtis sets sail for the 1960s and brings us along thanks to the music, hair, clothing (a purple velvet jacket for Gavin, a print shirt for Carl that looks like it was copied from a vintage school photo and, for women, white go-go boots, dresses with overlays of flowers or rickrack trim and long straight hair and bangs).
"Pirate Radio" made me want to buy the soundtrack, recommend it to music lovers and try to recapture the joy it inspired. It may be flawed, but it certainly is fun.
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