This enjoyable movie is recommended, especially for those who love surfing and the sea.
It tells the true story of Jay Moriarity (played by Jonny Weston), a young Santa Cruz surfer who conquered Mavericks during El Nino, one of the highest waves in the world. The heart of the movie is the relationship between him and his father-figure and surfing mentor, Frosty Hesson (played by Gerard Butler). Jay has no father, but he's a good kid (a real winner, actually) and he latches onto Frosty. We follow Jay as he learns some of Frosty's rules of life and applies them to accomplish this incredible feat at the age of 16.
Frosty's rules of life, and intense training routine, seemed rather bang on to me. This is the kind of thing that moulds young winners. It explains why Jay was able to conquer Mavericks. I accept the movie's moral: "live like Jay".
I enjoyed the scenes showing surfing and surfing life. I identified strongly with young Jay's struggles with his family and friends, and with his drive (unusual for a kid his age) to do this amazing and dangerous thing. This is a coming-of-age story that spoke to me.
This is by no means a perfect movie, but its downsides are relatively minor. The movie has a slight after-school-special quality. It's a movie completely acceptable for kids. Parents should be forcing their kids to see this one.
For me, one issue is that Jonny Weston was too old to play a 16 year old. He has a young-looking face, but when he took his shirt off you could see he was at least 5 years older than that. However, apart from that, he was perfectly cast and played his role excellently.
At the end of the film, we find out that Jay died in 2001 at the age of 22. This also explains why Jay is portrayed as such a beautiful and perfect kid, struggling with the imperfect people around him. The movie is a sort of eulogy to him. After watching the movie, Jay's death does feel like a huge loss.
Once again, a score on IMDb just seems inexplicably wrong to me. The few reviews so far are positive, but the scores apparently are not. The moviegoers voting this movie down are not writing reviews to explain their voting.
There is nothing wrong at all with this slightly sappy movie about a young hero. It's a fine movie that deserves better ratings.
37 out of 40 found this helpful