At best, Butler (as the Mr. Miyagi of surfing) got to learn how to surf from a professional.
The Queen of the Ocean, Brazilian goddess Iemanjá, wanted him and took him.
I was recognized as a child of Exu in the Umbanda religion last year in Curitiba. The goddess Iemanjá is one of the seven orixás of the African Pantheon of the Candomblé and Umbanda religions. She is the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight.
I did not do any research ahead of seeing the movie. I did not know what the story was about or who Jay Moriarity was in the surfing community. Could this really be the “true story”? “When legend becomes fact, print the legend“.** There are so many contrived pieces that when it gets down to the philosophy of surfing – indeed, there is one! – it looks silly. But Gerald Butler does his best reciting lines that would make anyone not getting paid squirm.
Jay Moriarity (Jonny Weston), 15 years old, lives in Santa Cruz, a surfer’s mecca. He is the care-giver of his drunken-abused by men, mother Kristy (Elizabeth Shue, who has it stipulated in her contracts that she must appear in bed and allowed to make a just-had-sex moan). Jay’s neighbor Frosty Hesson (Butler), who just happens to live directly across the tiny dirt street from Jay, is a renowned surfing legend. What a surprise!
Frosty is a man’s man who has to sneak out of the house every morning to ride Mavericks, the mythic waves. Mavericks are on the biggest surfs on Earth! Frosty promised his wife Brenda (Abigail Spencer) he wouldn’t surf those waves. He’s not a man who easily shows his emotions. He might love his wife, but hardly ever shows it. This foreshadows his tough approach to training Jay. Jay sneaks into Frosty’s truck and finds Frosty and three of his friends riding the Mavericks. He’s hooked.
Fresh-faced Jay is such a fine young man that when he discovers his best friend, Blond (Devin Crittenden), is the local drug dealer, he does not get involved. This recurring theme goes nowhere. Why is it in the movie?
Women with protruding teeth always have boyfriends. It’s a damn, un-researched fact.
Moriarity, at only 16, became a worldwide phenomenon in 1994 by wiping out spectacularly on a 30-foot Maverick. Refusing to be rescued, he continued to surf. The shot was captured on film and landed him on the cover of Surfer magazine. He was anointed a living-legend.
Frosty does go through an emotional trauma giving Butler the required “character arc”. He doesn’t save Jay from drowning, doesn’t run off with Kim, but tells Jay he loves him. Finally, he has achieved a transformed life through selflessly giving surfing lessons to a fatherless young man.
The surfing scenes are indeed breathtaking, but where is the villain? Can you get angry with the overwhelming power of water?
While Butler knows he’s teetering on a thankless carpenter-philosopher role, at least he tries. He looks great in a surf suit. Weston is so new and fresh, he just did as he was told. He needs seasoning and a director who can take the time to work with him on his emotional scenes. But when a star is on board and an executive producer, and there’s a lot of technical work with water, there is no time to teach someone how to act.
* Some diving organizations, such as the Diver Alert Network, say up to 40 people die worldwide each year from free diving accidents. Even those aware of the danger can be victims. The 2009 death of a St. Petersburg Catholic High graduate — a fit and experienced diver — offered a glimpse into the little-known world of free-diving, a growing phenomenon that teeters on the edge of tragedy. Some experts put those numbers much higher and say deaths have increased in recent years because of the sport’s increasing popularity. Many free divers don’t like to talk about the risk. Some don’t know it’s there until it’s too late.
**The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Victoria Alexander is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association: www.bfca.org/ and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society: www.lvfcs.org/. Victoria’s weekly column, “The Devil’s Hammer,” is posted every Monday. http://www.fromthebalcony.com/editorials.php.
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