MOVIE REVIEW: "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" *****

It is the rarest of films. It transports you into another time and another place, and makes you feel like a participant, not just a witness. Peter Weir's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is based on events in Patrick O'Brian's twenty volumes of nautical adventures featuring portly sea captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey and his best friend, doctor and spy Stephen Maturin.

In fairness, I should point out that I'm a big fan of the O'Brian books, having slowly navigated my way through the first four volumes. The books are almost ponderous in their detail, and I've been anxiously awaiting this film since spring in hopes that the film would do justice to these sprawling Hornblower-esque adventures.

Russell Crowe is a delight as Aubrey. He's probably not as portly as the literary Aubrey, but he has the charisma and charm to pull off the role of a commander whose men will follow him to the ends of the earth.

Paul Bettany is appropriately introspective as the ship's doctor, who would much rather spend a week on the Galapagos islands observing insects who disguise themselves as sticks than by serving on a British man-of-war.

Aubrey and his vessel, the H.M.S. Surprise, are ordered to intercept and disable the French battleship Acheron, a boat that seriously outweighs and outfires them in the hopes of maintaining stability over the increasingly encroaching forces of Bonaparte in 1805. Just about all of the film takes place aboard the Surprise, providing a claustrophobic atmosphere rivalling that of "Das Boot" and "The Hunt for Red October."

While many of the one hundred and ninety-seven souls go unnamed and unmentioned, the film deftly introduces about eight or nine outstanding supporting characters. Max Perkis astounds as a thirteen year-old midshipman who has his arm amputated early in the film. David Threlfall is Killick, the captain's steward, and is the only crewman, other than Maturin, who can talk back to Aubrey without getting slapped in irons. I don't know Threlfall, but he could be a lost Imus brother!

The Surprise and the Achelon engage thrice in the film, and the captain proves himself to be a match for Aubrey in cunning, and the ship, of course, is the Goliath to Surprise's David.

One of the many Oscar wins should be in sound mixing. If you are fortunate enough to see this in a state-of-the-art theater as I did (Movies 400 in Cumming), you will hear the creaking of the boat, the bells, the beating to quarters ... you'll feel everything but the rocking of the ship.

"Master and Commander" opened with a promising second place finish to "Elf" in its opening weekend, besting studio estimates by about eight million dollars. Hopefully it will be enough to warrant a sequel. After all, we should be able to squeeze out nineteen more ...