Jungle Cruise

Frank Wolff sells adventures before they’ve even begun. On his small steamboat, he takes tourists down the Amazon, shows them supposed dangers, and tells jokes whose punchlines are usually already waiting on the next riverbank. The fact that some of these are more carefully prepared than his passengers realize is just part of the business.

Then Lily Houghton comes on board. The British researcher is searching for a legendary tree whose blossoms are said to possess healing powers. Together with her brother MacGregor, she travels to South America because she’s convinced she can fundamentally change the field of medicine with it. To do so, she needs not only an ancient arrowhead to guide the way but also someone to take her through the Amazon. Frank needs money. Their partnership is thus sealed, but trust is still a long way off.

Jungle Cruise is particularly at home in these initial encounters. Dwayne Johnson’s Frank talks his way out of trouble, while Emily Blunt’s Lily prefers to charge straight through it. He knows the river and makes a living by selling its dangers to others as dramatically as possible. She has little patience for theatrics and even less for being told where she shouldn’t go. Their arguments don’t always have to set the stage for a major conflict. Often, it’s just fun to watch them annoy each other.

Lily isn’t particularly good at conforming to the expectations of those around her anyway. Even before she reaches the Amazon, she takes things people wouldn’t willingly give her, climbs out of windows, and wears clothes that are more practical for her plans than for social conventions. MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) accompanies her into an environment for which his extensive luggage seems far better prepared than he is.

Frank’s boat is small, the river unpredictable, and around the next bend might lie something Frank either knows very well or merely claims to know. Jungle Cruise adopts the episodic nature of a pleasure cruise without fully committing to it. Rapids, animals, and ancient legends pop up, while the journey maintains a clear destination. In between, Frank tells bad puns. Lots of bad puns.

They’re as much a part of him as the boat itself. The film doesn’t even try to turn them into particularly sophisticated comedy. What matters more is Frank’s persistence. A joke doesn’t get any better just because no one laughs. That doesn’t stop him from telling the next one.

Meanwhile, the search for the tree faces competition. Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) is pursuing the same goal and brings considerably more technical resources to the table than Lily and Frank. A submarine on the Amazon isn’t a particularly subtle way to kick off an adventure film. But it fits a film that likes to highlight its contrasts: on one hand, the rickety little boat; on the other, a machine that clears its path with torpedoes if necessary. And somewhere between the two lies a legend that isn’t as easy to handle as a treasure map.

At the same time, the relationship between Frank and Lily doesn’t need to be constantly framed as a grand romance. At first, it works better through practical questions. Who’s steering? Who actually knows where they’re going? Who can they trust? Lily needs Frank’s local knowledge; Frank needs her determination; and both have good reasons not to tell the other everything.

The film deliberately maintains a light tone. Even when its story touches on illness, war, and ancient curses, it rarely takes long before someone falls back into the river, something collapses, or Frank says something he finds far funnier than everyone else. This carefree attitude sometimes takes the weight off the adventure, but it’s also part of its character.

The Amazon, accordingly, is not a place to be observed in peace. It’s an obstacle course of water, rocks, ruins, animals, and things that would have been better left undisturbed. Frank knows many of its tricks. Lily is primarily interested in what lies beyond.

Thus begins their journey with a man who pretends to offer his passengers adventure and a woman who is determined to experience a real one. The river can provide both.