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Judging from critical reaction, director Peter Weir's Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe, will be the movie to beat in the Oscar competition this year. Virtually every major critic is giving it a rave review. Typical is this four-star salute from Roger Ebert: Master and Commander is grand and glorious, and touching in its attention to its characters. Like the work of David Lean, it achieves the epic without losing sight of the human, and to see it is to be reminded of the way great action movies can rouse and exhilarate us, can affirm life instead of simply dramatizing its destruction. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls it, thoughtful, rousing and beautifully crafted. To Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News, it's an awesome, old-fashioned pirate epic. To Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News, it's a masterpiece of extraordinary power and beauty. To Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal, it's a gift for those of us who've forgotten what it's like to see an epic that fills the screen with billowing sails and the soul with a sense of high adventure. For those who've never known, it will be a revelation. A.O. Scott in the New York Times describes it as stupendously entertaining, and, in his conclusion, has this to say: It is rare, nowadays, to see a story of such scale and complexity filmed with such clarity, swiftness and attention to detail. ... Master and Commander hums with humor, passion and life. It is, in short, according to Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune, the best movie of its kind ever made. Nevertheless, many critics wonder whether the movie will be able to attract a sizable audience, especially given the fact that it is virtually devoid of women. And at least one major reviewer is sympathizes with those who may be put off by such a film. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post writes that it feels weirdly overstuffed, no better than most Hollywood swashbucklers of the past and seems fated to disappoint everyone except the slick magazines that put it on their covers.