Jungle Cruise

Jaume Collet-Serra’s Jungle Cruise is a serviceable adventure, with two enjoyable leads and more plot than it needs. The aim is straightforward: an old-fashioned expedition with danger, jokes and enough fantasy to send the story somewhere unexpected. For much of its 127 minutes, the film seems worried that this will not be enough, so it keeps adding complications. We would have been content with fewer explanations and more time for the actors to annoy each other.

Emily Blunt gives Dr. Lily Houghton the briskness the whole film needs, moving through familiar material without asking us to congratulate her for it. Dwayne Johnson’s Frank Wolff is a useful partner: relaxed enough to be irritating, willing to let her get the better of him. We laughed at their early banter because her impatience keeps interrupting his composure. Their timing makes the exchanges work, and their physical performances give the comedy some welcome variety.

That rapport does not make the romance entirely persuasive. Both actors can sell a disagreement more readily than a tender moment, and the writing tends to assume affection will follow automatically from prolonged proximity. Jesse Plemons, as Prince Joachim, gets considerable pleasure from being a nuisance. His enjoyment of the character’s mischief gives the film a welcome change of energy, especially when the leads are occupied with making the next complication sound important.

Flavio Martínez Labiano’s cinematography is most effective in the smaller, tactile details, which have a presence the wider jungle often lacks. Jean-Vincent Puzos’s production design supplies a busy period setting, though its detail struggles to compete with the digital scenery. Too often, the surroundings look artificial enough to distract from the people moving through them. That makes danger harder to believe, however vigorously the performers react to it, and leaves some of the spectacle oddly unexciting.

The action is generally easy to follow, which matters in a film so eager to crowd the screen. Joel Negron’s editing keeps individual passages legible, but cannot stop the accumulation of them becoming tiring. James Newton Howard’s score gives the adventure an expansive sweep; it is less successful at supplying wonder to images that do not earn it. The music does useful work, though there are stretches when we would welcome a little less encouragement to be impressed.

The screenplay by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa and Michael Green gives the cast opportunities for comedy, then repeatedly interrupts them with another complication. Its supernatural explanations demand more attention than they repay, and the later stretch feels longer than it should. Familiarity itself is not the problem: this sort of adventure can be satisfying with a clear goal and characters worth following. The trouble is that each addition feels familiar too, and few give the characters anything more interesting to do.

There is enough good humour here for an evening when agreeable company matters more than surprise. We would recommend it chiefly to viewers who enjoy this kind of fantasy adventure and can forgive scenery that never quite convinces. Go for Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, and allow some patience for the explanations.