I was wary of this movie from the previews, as it seemed like it had focused on only one part of the wonderful Patrick O'Brian books--the character of "Lucky" Jack Aubrey--and used that as a vehicle for Russell Crowe. No other actor got "named" in the preview, for one, and the whole focus of the preview seemed to be on Crowe looking pensive or decisive or jumping into action. But the preview isn't the movie, and even though all those things are in the movie, there's a whole lot more.

I really shouldn't have worried, as the director and co-screenwriter is Peter Weir, whose films I have enjoyed in the past (most recently, The Truman Show, another "vehicle" for a star at the top of the heap of the moment). And, having read some of the source material, I knew that there was depth to these characters. My interest in the books had as much to do with the interplay between the patriotic, stuffed-shirt Aubrey and the subversive, idealistic Maturin as it did with the minutia of who had the weather gauge and the day-to-day life for nearly 200 men aboard a floating bunch of wood.

The film captures both quite well, although Crowe's Aubrey doesn't come across quite as proud and full-of-himself as he does in the books (in fact, the movie hardly shows a chink in his armor). But it shows his character's cleverness and resourcefullness, just as it shows the doctor's inquistiveness and sea naiveity. It also emphasizes on the roughness of the life, showing the bilge, the carpentry, the lash, the need for rum and provisions, and the constant practicing with the guns. But, best of all, while Crowe's character is important, for most of the plot, he is ancilliary as we follow aspects of the rest of the crew: the midshipman whom the others see as a "Jonah," the young lord who loses his arm in the first battle, and the doctor himself, wounded at a critical juncture. I hesitate to say more about the plot, as that might detract from someone's enjoyment of the story, and for an action movie, it truly is the story that makes this one shine.

The soundtrack is perfect, with the wood constantly creaking and groaning, and I'm thankful that no one has ever perfect smell-o-vision, because the visuals were enough of a suggestion in that direction.

There's twenty books in the O'Brian series, and I'm sure that some studio head is slavering at the box office receipts and thinking sequel. If so, I hope that the next will feature a director as good as Weir and bring in some of the romantic subplot with Sophie or the undercover exploits of Maturin. This movie has established the main characters, just as the first book did, and if a sequel is to be any good, it has to do just as O'Brian did and be more than "Hornblower, Too" but a fascinating look into a very alien world, so unlike our own today.