Tired of unsophisticated action flicks aimed at teenagers? If so, you're in luck because Master and Commander will probably wow everybody, teens included. A literary script, incisive performances, and respect for the audience make this high seas adventure a must see. The stirring nautical narrative, based on several of Patrick O'Brian’s novels, doesn't need extravagant special effects to stay afloat. Australian helmer Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) creates a traditional, nuanced tale concerning the masculine virtues needed for leadership, victory, and progress.

In 1805 the H.M.S. Surprise, crammed with British sailors, is in pursuit of a particularly elusive and dangerous French warship. The Napoleonic Wars are raging and its quarry, the Acheron, is threatening to bring the battle to the South Seas. Orders are to seek out and destroy the frigate, which is bigger, faster and more lethal. The picture begins with a quick battle off the coast of Brazil and follows the warships around Cape Horn up to the Galapagos Islands.

Russell Crowe has found another tailor-made role as Captain Jack Aubrey, re-teaming with his A Beautiful Mind co-star Paul Bettany, who plays the ship's surgeon and amateur naturalist, Dr. Stephen Maturin. "Lucky Jack" is an ideal seaman and leader, and Maturin is a gifted surgeon. The close friends make classical music together and represent two male archetypes. While the swordplay, cannon fighting, and brawling are rousing, the crux of the movie is the relationship between a man of action and a man of intellect, though neither is one-dimensional (Aubrey plays a sweet-sounding fiddle and Maturin displays ample courage and grit). The movie suggests that inside every man there's tension between bellicose instincts and scientific and artistic inclinations.

Patiently, Weir charts a steady course between the two figures and two very different actors. He balances the harsh, strenuous aspects of the action -- fierce hand-to-hand combat, various gruesome operations -- with the subtle conflict that develops between the two gentlemen. Aubrey's command quietly comes under question, and a plotline involving a midshipman who loses the respect of the conscripted sailors echoes the major theme.

Women appear only briefly, coming alongside the Suprise to trade wares. An attractive and inviting Brazilian catches Aubrey's eye and he's tempted to take her as he would the fruits of war. He resists for practical reasons and because females are, without prejudice, alien to this world and to his military mission. The young boys who serve on the ship at the start of naval careers are the closest approximation. Aubrey and Maturin each have a fatherly relationship toward one brave, angelic-looking lad. There are no homoerotic overtones yet classic Greek values are at play. Master and Commander  holds substantial measures of valor and compassion, intelligence and emotion, brute force and quiet learning. These qualities enable the sailors to endure being apart from women and losing trusted friends in battle. And, to spell out the implied politics of this great adventure, these are the necessary ingredients for defending the British Empire from a French tyrant.

(Released by 20th Century Fox and rated "PG-13" for intense battle sequences, related images and brief language.)