Blue Crush
Blue Crush is a perfect example of why there should be laws about truth in advertising. The preview for the film would have you believe it’s wall-to-wall sex, surf and rock n’ roll, but what you wind up sitting through for an hour and forty minutes is something else entirely. Not that that’s such a bad thing.
The film centers on the relationship between Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), a hardcore surfer girl training for the Rip Masters surfing competition, and her friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (surfer Sanoe Lake). The girls make up a surrogate family for Anne Marie, who has to mind her little sister (Mika Boreem) since her mom left Hawaii for Vegas with her new husband. They work together as maids at a local hotel to barely make the rent, and they train together to help Anne Marie recover from the near drowning accident that almost ended her surfing career before it started. Feeling the pressure from all sides, Anne Marie is blindsided by a romance with Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis), a pro quarterback on vacation in Hawaii. But what will this mean for her surfing career?
Blue Crush has a lot going for it. Yes, the actresses in the lead roles exude a strong amount of sexiness, but there also something to say for the way the film handles the tight knit relationships between the girls as well as the discrimination they encounter by being female in a male dominated field and poor in a rich man’s playground. It doesn’t spend nearly enough time expanding on those themes, but, by at least acknowledging they exist, it shows this film has its head in a different place. The teen party sequences are nowhere near as enticing as they are in typical teen flicks. The surfing sequences, which use very little detectable computer manipulation, are intense and exciting to watch. Shot are set up and edited under the water, on the surface of it, and then above it in midair, sometimes all in the same sequence. And the big climax, the actual Rip Masters competition where Anne Marie is the ultimate underdog, doesn’t come off as clichéd as it might have in other films. The performances are good across the board, but it’s Bosworth’s film and she runs with it. From her performance, it is easy to see how eager someone like Anne Marie would be to walk away from her hectic and drab life and into the arms of someone more exotic and rich.
This doesn’t mean the film doesn’t have its problems. For a film about surfing, it spends an awful lot of time on land to examine its characters’ state of mind and not enough in the water. And there is a Pretty Woman aspect to the romance between Anne Marie and Matt that the film could have done without.
But those are just minor complaints. Over all, the film is a solid effort from former actor turned director John Stockwell, who first two films, the HBO feature Cheaters and the Kirsten Dunst vehicle crazy/beautiful took place in similar teen surroundings. Both films featured flawed and interesting female characters out in front as well, a trend Blue Crush continues proudly. Young actresses of the world take notice: in Stockwell, you may have just found the perfect director to help shape your budding career.
Submitted 07 September 02. Posted 12 September 02.
