In theaters

SHUT UP & SING, directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, 93 minutes, rated R. Starts tonight, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Free speech and its ramifications are at the heart of the new Dixie Chicks documentary “Shut Up & Sing,” which recognizes that for the celebrity, engaging in a public exchange of ideas and opinions isn’t always without its costs.

The price can be dire.

Just ask Gwyneth Paltrow, who came under fire this week when she reportedly noted that the British are more intelligent and civilized than Americans, especially at, well, dinner parties. Or Madonna, whose poorest-selling CD, “American Life,” features songs that criticize American culture. Or Tom Cruise, whose stinging public backlash was fueled when he famously took on Brooke Shields about the subject of antidepressants.

For the Dixie Chicks, an all-female group from Texas that includes bandmates Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, the backlash began in 2003. It was March, American troops were preparing to invade Iraq, Bush’s popularity was high, and outspoken lead singer Maines, in the heat of a sold-out London performance, unwittingly tossed a verbal grenade into the audience: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas,” she said.

Overseas, the crowd went wild. But here at home, the far right suddenly had an unlikely target in their sights – a hugely successful, beloved country group best known for its songs of broken hearts and infidelity than for creating a political scandal.

Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck deftly chronicle the tumultuous fallout that ensued, with Chicks’ manager Simon Renshaw initially believing that it would all blow over in a matter of days. It didn’t.

Soon, country radio had banned the Chicks from play lists, death threats started to roll in, fans began smashing their CDs in amusing public gatherings (such anger!) and ticket sales for the group’s concerts started to tank. On camera, one Southern fan remarked, “I like their songs, but I wish they’d just shut up and sing.” Others chose to brandish the American flag and wave it in protest while they stood in line for Dixie Chicks concerts. Apparently, tickets to the concerts weren’t refundable and few appeared willing to back their phony convictions if it meant losing money and missing out on a good show.

What’s so compelling about “Shut Up & Sing” isn’t just how it exposes some of the Chicks’ fans as frauds, but how it captures the Chicks themselves in a difficult time of transition. Here is a tight group of friends who literally had to regroup and rethink who they were as performers and as people. If country radio wasn’t going to play them and their fans allegedly weren’t going to listen to them, then who was their audience? And how would all this affect not only the music they made, but also their relationships with themselves and their families? The film’s considerable tension comes from the worry, anger and frustration that seizes them.

In the end, as we now know, the experience made the Dixie Chicks better, more accomplished artists and performers, with their music turning inward in an effort to comment on the controversy. For the first time, they began writing all of their own material, with the result of that effort being the defiant CD “Taking the Long Way,” which was released last May in a rather different political climate and, in a valentine of free speech itself, quickly sold more than 1 million copies in a matter of weeks.

Grade: A-

On DVD

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST, directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, 154 minutes, rated PG-13.

Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” does exactly what you expect it to do. It supersizes what worked in the 2003 original to the point that it becomes less a movie and more a spectacle.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, particularly since this film features its share of memorable action scenes. The trouble is that by focusing so much attention on the technical execution of those scenes, what this sequel lacks is the fine mix of romance, bombast, wit and action that made the first film such an unexpected delight.

At nearly 21/2 hours, the movie is too long. Shave off a third and we might have had another great pirate picture on our hands. As it stands, we have a good one, a movie that retains some of the original’s charm in spite of its familiarity.

The film brings back much of the original cast, with the highlight once again being Johnny Depp’s rummy performance as Capt. Jack Sparrow. He’s nicely unhinged here, and even if his performance is a repeat, the movie would collapse without him in it. Depp is what “Chest” needs to keep it light, particularly since the plot is so unnecessarily dense.

In its most streamlined form – and that’s an understatement – the film finds Sparrow, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and Will (Orlando Bloom), among others, fighting to find the buried treasure chest that contains the heart of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy, whose slimy, tentacled head is among the film’s best special effects). Backed by his sea-creature crew of fishy zombies, Jones wants that chest for himself – it does, after all, contain his soul – and so what he brings to the movie is its necessary air of rancid, mischievous menace.

Jones is a rousing villain, just interesting enough to keep the messy plot and subplots moving. Weakening the movie, however, is its lack of structure and the absolute lack of chemistry between Elizabeth and Will.

Unlike in the first film, they are oddly out of touch here, failing to generate a spark and not because they’re often soaked in water. The problem is that the script doesn’t factor in enough of their relationship. It seems like a throwaway afterthought, when really, it’s as essential to the movie as, say, the giant runaway wheel on which an impressive swordfight is staged, the huge octopus that ravages ships, and the gleam in Depp’s eye when he once again manages to dance out of danger.

Grade: B-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.