Sparrow and Napoleon

I don't watch a zillion movies. And I definitely avoid Hollywood crap. But, this weekend, I popped in two DVDs -- "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" -- and liked both of them.

Most big-budget Hollywood films are like sandcastles; they're cool for a couple hours, then get washed out of your memory banks. The only thing that made "Pirates" different was Johnny Depp, who brought an indie-film persona to his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow. Needless to say, he was mesmerizing. Of course, so was Orlando Bloom, but that's because he's so freaking beautiful. Depp's over-the-top interpretation of Sparrow, on the other hand, was unforgettable for the acting.

"Napoleon Dynamite," meanwhile, was pure indie. It was made by a young BYU graduate, of all things, and set in Idaho, a place that reminds you to fall to your knees in gratitude that your parents never deposited you in the Rocky Mountain West. (Mine, actually, did conceive me in the Rockies of eastern Washington State, but that was only because my father was in the Air Force and stationed in a place called Colville. Happily, we moved when I was 6 weeks old .) But brown, desolate Idaho is perfect for this flick, where the vast open spaces are a nice contrast to the confined world the characters inhabit. The movie is cool because its deadpan humor is so fresh. Both Efren Ramirez as Pedro and Jon Heder in the title role are magnificent. And although "Napoleon" morphs into a feel-good movie, it does so without being cloying. In the end, it's about the power of friendship, about how beauty can be found in the most unlikely places, and about the need to never stop hoping. All wrapped in an original, quirky package.