A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.
Chuck says:
We come to expect certain things with established actors. We tend to think of Meryl Streep in austere, serious roles, while a George Clooney movie tends to feature the actor as the cool confident sort who can handle most any situation. Obviously, both accomplished performers have successfully played against type again and again, showing a versatility that tends to keep the audience on their toes, but we tend to associate qualities from them they find hard to shake.
As for Nicolas Cage, once his name is attached to a film, all bets are off. It may be a drama, it might be an action flick, it could be a horror feature with a B-Movie sensibility. You’re not quite sure what you’ll get with him, other than the fact that the actor will be completely committed in his role, to the point he will hopefully lose all abandon and generate some meme-worthy moments.
Such is the case with his latest, “The Surfer,” a small wonder from Down Under, helmed by Irish director Lorcan Finnegan. Cage is featured in the titular role, a man desperate to reconnect with his teenage son (Finn Little). Though sporting an American accent, the Surfer insists he was born in Australia and is intent on buying his old family home, which overlooks Luna Bay. When he tells his boy of his intentions, the young man is disinterested. Hoping to reconnect with him, the old man suggests they go surfing, however, they’re rebuffed by a group of locals who insist only natives from town can be on the beach.
This encounter doesn’t go well, the Surfer’s son leaving even more disillusioned with his father, who winds up stuck at the beach when his car battery dies. Things spiral further out of control when the leader of the, for want of a better word, tribe (Julian McMahon) sees his presence as trespassing and encourages the others in his group to harass our hero.
The attacks on the Surfer escalate until he’s completely emasculated and forced to resort his most base tendencies to survive. Toxic Masculinity is in Finnegan’s crosshairs, the members of the cult seen as brutish, propelled by the need to dominate everything and everyone they encounter. Needless to say, this behavior leads to a shocking conclusion that’s both cathartic and terrifying.
That the main characters are given no names is telling, though to delve into that here would be to strip away some the film’s mystery. Why the Surfer is unable to leave the beach and ignores the repeated warnings of “You don’t belong here,” is the key to the movie. Suffice it to say, it is a hell of his own making, one in which a reckoning must be rendered before he can move on.
The film’s middle sags a bit, the ever-increasing degradation of the titular character somewhat overdone. Thomas Martin’s script is very deliberate in the way it doles out information regarding the Surfer’s past, which may tax your patience. However, it does pay off handsomely with an ending you’ll be turning over in your mind for days after seeing it.
Be that as it may, Cage keeps you hooked throughout, the slow degradation of his character allowing the actor to channel the sort of manic desperation he’s become known for. However, here it is not done for comedic effect, a sense of pain and pathos coming through, the actor never mocking the Surfer’s plight or what he’s enduring. Cage’s humanistic approach provides “The Surfer” with heart and soul, leaving us to pity the character’s plight rather than scorn him for his mistakes.
3 Stars
