BBC News has the results from a pole asking 3,000 movie-goers to pinpoint on-screen couples with the least convincing chemistry. Not surprisingly, the dim-bulb love story between Princess Padme Amidala(Natalie Portman) and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in STAR WARS, EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES and STAR WARS, EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH topped the list. Also honored among the Top Five were Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom for their roles in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN trilogy.
There is no doubt the STAR WARS films represent pretty much the absolute nadir in on-screen romance, but I’m not quite sure why voters would pick on the PIRATES movies. Yes, the two sequels sucked, and the love triangle sub-plot got really boring, but if I were going to pick an unconvincing couple it would be Knightly and Johnny Depp. We all know the real Depp is handsome and attractive, but the Jack Sparrow characterization is a drunken half-insane, syphilitic pirate. We’re supposed to think there’s something alluring about his bad-boy persona, but Knightley performance never sells us on the concept that her character would regard this reprobate with any more regard than she would have for a mangy, flea-bitten dog (which in a way, he is).