The Surfer, Hollywood Film Review, Picks And Piques, Johnson Thomas

Hollywood Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Sketchy thrills, disaffecting psychobabble
Film: The Surfer
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Justin Rosniak, Alexander Bertrand, Rahel Romahn, Nicholas Cassim, Finn Little, Charlotte Maggi
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Rating: * 1/2
Runtime: 100 min.

In this film Nicholas Cage tackles a similar role to ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ which he did in 1988 and it’s not a pretty sight. The director Finnegan and Martin, the scriptwriter, have admitted in an interview that this film is partially inspired by the classic 1968 film The Swimmer, an adaptation of a John Cheever short story. But this film inspired or not, doesn’t achieve any great heights.

Cage plays a man who grew up in a small town on the Australian coastline and since has been living in the U.S. for several decades. The opening scene has him return home to Australia with his son (Finn Little) and attempt to venture out to the coastline to surf the waves and also negotiate to repurchase his family home. The moment they arrive at the beach trouble erupts with the Bay Boys, a group of self-styled surf punk bullies who prevent his attempts to surf the waves claiming “Don’t live here, don’t surf here.” His attempts to convince local bigwig Scally (Julian McMahon) that he is actually from there, fall on deaf ears. From thereon the picture just goes berserk in outlandish fashion. His life spirals out of control in bizarre and grotesque ways and his mind begins to unravel under the hot, unrelenting Australian sun. The extremes match those experienced by the lead character in ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ but validating or justifying it becomes difficult.

The blazing heat, tormented by various Bay Boys, persecuted by locals, and stripped of his money, possessions, and dignity, eating scraps from the waste bin, and drinking brown water from a bathroom tap, he becomes a vulnerable pawn for the bullies. There’s worse to come and it’s better left unsaid. He could have just left but the writers and the director want us to believe that this man in a near feral state still wants to confront his oppressors. Sketchy, campy and extreme the masculine angst bit has nowhere to go.

Thomas Martin’s screenplay touches on financial desperation and toxic masculinity but there’s no meaningful uptake from it. The humiliations heaped on the lead character feel manufactured and lacks purpose. The conclusion also falls flat. Cage is often cast as a lonesome man in films of late, and it is getting quite tiresome. The cinematography by DP Radek Ladczuk, is stylish and manages to convey the desperate situation quite well though.

Director Lorcan Finnegan who has had a bizarre track record with films like “Vivarium” and “Nocebo” continues in that vein but it’s not sustainable. This is a terrible attempt at psychological thriller as the writing lacks depth and the helming lacks focus. The attempt at creating claustrophobia is also quite hollow. The frequent zooms into the surfer’s eyes, sudden flash backs and forwards, zooms, jump cuts etc fail to create an atmosphere to reckon with. Cage’s performance is as over-the-top as the script expects of him and though competent, it’s not something worth cheering about.

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