‘The Bluff’ review: A brutal, landlocked pirate drama

Set in 1846, at the ragged end of the pirate era in the Caribbean, The Bluff (Amazon Prime Video) pits a former pirate in hiding against a relentless hunter chasing stolen gold. Unlike most films in the genre, the action unfolds largely on dry land rather than on rolling decks and cannon-blasted ships. Piracy defines these characters’ past, but this story is about what happens when that past refuses to stay buried.

On a quiet stretch of Cayman Brac, in a fishing community of white sands and shell-lined paths, the Bodden family awaits the return of Captain T.H. Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova). His wife, Ercell (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), keeps the household steady. Their young son Isaac (Vedanten Naidoo), physically disabled but resolute, counts the days of his father’s absence. Aunt Lizzy (Safia Oakley-Green) has her own reasons for keeping an eye on the horizon. Life in this small British colony moves at an unhurried pace—until it doesn’t, because Ercell has a past she has carefully tried to outrun.

When Captain Francisco Connor (Karl Urban) storms the island with his band of hardened renegades, it’s clear they’re not there for trade. They’re after gold and the woman once known as Bloody Mary. As Ercell makes clear, if they have come looking for Bloody Mary, then “bloody is what they are going to get”.

Don’t expect elaborate ship duels in the tradition of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World or Pirates of the Caribbean. In The Bluff (named for the island’s steep cliff), the confrontations play out in compact homes, scrubland, caves and along the bluff. There’s little naval spectacle and almost no time spent at sea.

That choice proves both limiting and defining. Sweeping maritime scale has been traded for a brutal intimacy. The action set pieces, replete with clashing machetes, blasting muskets and homegrown explosives, are the film’s strongest element. Director and co-writer Frank E. Flowers stages the fights with urgency, making them scrappy and up close.

At 101 minutes, the pacing is brisk, moving from siege to revelation to retaliation efficiently. The screenplay, co-written by Flowers and Joe Ballarini, sticks closely to familiar action-drama beats: a buried past, a reluctant return to violence, family under threat, a vengeance-driven antagonist. The trajectory is rarely surprising, and some dialogue lands heavily. The varying accents can be distracting.

Visually, the production occasionally shows strain. Painted backdrops and patches of CG work don’t always blend seamlessly, underscoring that this isn’t a lavish studio epic but a leaner production.

What holds the film together are the performances. Priyanka Chopra Jonas anchors the story with physical and emotional conviction. Her Bloody Mary is not a flamboyant outlaw but a woman carrying the weight of a violent past she wants to leave buried. As danger closes in on her family, her restraint fractures in compelling ways.

Opposite her, Karl Urban plays the unwashed and corrosive Connor. There’s no theatrical swagger here, though there is a fair amount of glowering as Urban plays up a character driven by obsession and grievance. The confrontation between Chopra Jonas and Urban gives the film its tension.

Ultimately, The Bluff is a scaled-down revenge drama set during the waning years of Caribbean piracy, lacking the sweep of classic seafaring adventures. Rather than reinvent the genre, the film leans into familiar tropes to deliver bursts of visceral action backed by a commanding central performance from Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Yet the film doesn’t quite escape the predictability of its writing, working at best as a modest, landlocked revenge drama that leaves only a faint impression.

Udita Jhunjhunwala is a Goa-based film critic and curator.