Movie Review – Bluff, The
Principal Cast : Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Karl Urban, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Safia Oakley-Green, Vedanten Naidoo, Temuera Morrison, David Field, Greg Hutton, Pacharo Mzembe, Gideon Mzembe, Zack Morris, Gary Beadle.
Synopsis: A Caribbean woman’s secret past is revealed when her island is invaded by vicious buccaneers.
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A splendid mix of Pirates of the Caribbean meets John Wick, Amazon and MGM’s seven-seas treasure-hunt-and-revenge thriller sees Priyanka Chopra Jonas showcase her action heroine skills, and permits an always gritty Karl Urban to absolutely Chew The Scenery every chance he gets. Although Jack Sparrow is nowhere to be seen in this bloody, violent opus, The Bluff‘s sly wink to the audience throughout belies what might otherwise be a more serious film – it seems nobody can take the pirate subgenre seriously at all, by all accounts, though Cayman Island-born director Frank E Flowers certainly gives it his all to remedy the aftertaste of Johnny Depp’s drunken performances with this swanky postmodern affair.
Plot synopsis courtesy Wikipedia: The Bluff follows Ercell “Bloody Mary” Bodden, played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, a former Caribbean pirate who has abandoned her violent past to live quietly on the island of Cayman Brac with her disabled son Isaac (Vedanten Naidoo) and sister-in-law Elizabeth (Safia Oakley-Green) while awaiting the overdue return of her seafaring husband T.H. Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova). Her attempt at a peaceful life collapses when the ruthless pirate captain Connor (Karl Urban)—a former lover and enemy from her notorious past—arrives on the island with a band of marauders seeking revenge and a hidden cache of gold she once stole from him. Forced to reveal the truth about her past and drawing upon the lethal skills that once made her infamous, Ercell leads her family to a secret hideout known as the Bluff while preparing to confront Connor and rescue her captured husband before the island is completely overrun by his men.
Pirate movies are notoriously hard to do, particularly in the modern blockbuster era. Disney’s legendary Pirates of the Caribbean franchise notwithstanding, it’s rare for modern piracy films to turn a profit, with the subgenre notable for the number of shipwrecked entries vying to unearth viewing-number treasure. The Bluff heads direct to Amazon’s Prime streaming service, avoiding box-office pitfalls and instead finding an audience in the cross-demographic between teenagers drawn to star Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ obvious allure and older viewers keen to enjoy some wanton, hardcore violence à la John Wick, a franchise from which this film obviously enjoys similar tonality. Themes of revenge, salvation and redemption have long percolated in the pirate subgenre, with The Bluff never wanting to avoid such clichés – instead, Flowers and his producing team, notable for including Avengers stalwarts Joe and Anthony Russo, as well as Zoe Saldaña and her sisters Cisely and Mariel, lean heavily into female-centric subtexts of slavery, survival and eventual acceptance of one’s role in history, with Chopra Jonas’ turn as Ercell, handy with both gun and blade, transitioning from hidden, island-living ex-pirate to heroine of the hour, claiming all these varied themes as badges of honour to be enjoyed.
Co-written by Flowers and Joe Ballarini, The Bluff‘s sweaty, machismo-fuelled action sensibilities do tend to bury the lede of the film’s emotional throughlines, and while Chopra Jonas is formidably stoic as the lead she’s given few real moments to develop her character; instead, half-baked colonial undercurrents cook the story until it’s well done, trading subversive Indian-heritage downtroddenness with survival-at-any-cost angst, leaving only bullets, blood and gore to salvage the day. Nope, The Bluff isn’t especially intellectual when it can showcase its leading actress’ action chops, and they are both furious and fertile ground for Flowers’ stylish camerawork. The production design is exceptional, as one might expect for a film with the Russos’ imprimatur, filmed on and around Australia’s Gold Coast region standing in for the Cayman Islands, and the various visual and practical effects work – from explosions to sailing ships to bravura brawl sequences that raise the flag inexorably towards success – are all first rate. Chopra Jonas and co-star Karl Urban, who gives us a legitimately enjoyable teeth-gnashing camp turn as Captain Connor, spend more time grimacing, glowering and squaring off against a backdrop of tropical jungle, village destruction and even Cayman crocodiles, all with a glint in the eye played for chuckles by an audience knowing it’s all absurd.
Indeed, The Bluff is nothing but absurd, a forgivable assault of brawn, scurvy-sea-dog nonsense with as much high-octane action as you can shovel into a blunderbuss. The action sequences are raucous and bloody, boasting an enormous body count and a visceral goriness that does little to hinder the entertainment value. Watching people get blown in half or having their heads stoved in by a giant conch shell is worth the price of admission alone, and everything else The Bluff gives us is cream. Supporting turns from the likes of Temuera Morrison – who knows exactly what kind of film he’s in – and Australian veteran David Field, as the island’s resident pastor, as well as Safia Oakley-Green and Vedanten Naidoo playing Ercell’s young step-children, are valuable assets despite – again – the material being sufficient only to propel the narrative rather than drive character development, while Greg Hatton has a blast playing an odious member of Connor’s band with an eye for evil. Some of the acting here is somewhat wooden, particularly from the younger cast, but it hardly warrants significant critique given the pulp nature of the material and the propulsive chase-and-defend urgency of the storyline.
Battered and bruising, Priyanka Chopra Jonas delivers spectacle and orgiastic violence in this revenge-turned-thriller effort from Frank E Flowers. Capably directed, beautifully shot by Director of Photography Greg Baldi, and boasting a rock-percussion-adjacent score from composer Henry Jackman, The Bluff is inelegantly told but always designed to shock, awe, and engage the viewer. Not the best film of the year by a wide margin, it’s still an early frontrunner for one of the most juvenile and enjoyably silly. Turn off the lights, turn this sucker up, and enjoy. I had a blast.
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