There aren’t any of the desaturated flashbacks that could reasonably be expected in “The Pirate King” when Josh Plasse’s feature directorial debut involves a former Marine who is struggling PTSD following his tour of duty in Afghanistan. There are sounds from combat that still ring in Todd Gillis’ (Rob Riggle) ears, faint echoes of which can crop up unexpectedly, but Plasse, an actor himself before moving behind the camera, largely trusts the memory to show up on Riggle’s face and carrying it around like a sack of potatoes as Todd lumbers around inches life back home in Virginia, which isn’t the only VA he looks a bit uncomfortable roaming around these days. Although the film doesn’t waste time establishing the gravity of Todd’s situation as he soberly discusses his case with a social worker (Annabeth Gish) in the film’s opening, less expected than the eventual surprise of finding out that he’ll join a band of pirate performers to please his daughter is the restraint that seems to come from an authentic place in a drama that could easily be overwrought.
Surely some of the credit also has to go to Riggle, who has the experience to play Gillis though it wouldn’t be obvious from his past credits from the comedies that followed his stint on “Saturday Night Live,” but from his military service that preceded it. He acquits himself well as the former Marine who you can’t tell if he’s joking or not when he doesn’t exactly answer no when asked by his VA attendee if he still wants to hurt people during his routine check-up. (A “just kidding” after he says “only when they deserve it,” doesn’t exactly get a laugh.) However, there is a more playful side that is revealed around his young daughter Emmylou (Adele Abinante), which creates an intriguing conundrum when his volatility around anyone else including his ex-wife Tess (Elizabeth Tulloch) has put his partial custody of her in jeopardy, bound to send him really reeling should he lose her. He seems to be facing an uphill climb even for Emmylou’s affections when he hears Tess’ new beau can afford to take them all to St. Lucia to see where “Pirates of the Caribbean” was filmed while he can only take her to nearby Chesapeake Bay to see some local actors sword fighting, not being able to afford much more with what work he can get as an HVAC repairman.
Fortunately, Emmylou is too young to see much of a difference, leading her to ask her father if they can meet up with the cast after the show to see if she could join their merry band and while they politely suggest their show isn’t for children, David (Matt Barr), the Captain Hook of the gang, notices a fellow former Marine when he sees one and offers Todd a chance to be a part of the action. While the script from Plasse and Brev Moss can at times come across as little clunky — Todd’s consultations with his lawyer about his custody case are almost shamelessly expository — the filmmakers really do seize on an interesting story idea when the pirate performers aren’t all necessarily veterans but have had their share of conflict in their lives and while Todd may not get too comfortable with getting into makeup and swinging around a sword, clearly doing so only at the behest of his daughter, the feeling of acceptance amongst a group where everybody has their flaws really can sink in when he’s put his guard up so much elsewhere. A discovery that the group really does pillage and plunder in their off-hours to a modest degree, potentially also putting his custody case in peril, crops up as cause for concern, but Plasse recognizes there’s enough tension to wring from Todd’s reconciliation within himself to keep the drama interesting in a more unusual way, particularly as he mourns one of his closest friends he fought alongside.
Premiering at SXSW, “The Pirate King” reminded of another hit the festival had a few years prior in “The Peanut Butter Falcon” where seeing the good in other people during such cynical times seemed like a victory enough to hang a movie on and there’s a fundamental decency undergirding the whole endeavor that wins you over. Even before the real-life inspirations can appear in interviews over the end credits, delivering some of the dialogue that ends up in the film, something rings true about what it conveys about not only the psychological toll of military service, but the lack of resources former soldiers are afforded once they’re back in civilian life and while it may be a constant source of frustration throughout for Todd to feel no one will understand him, it becomes moving to innately feel that someone does.
“ThePirate King” does not yet have U.S. distribution.