⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (out of 5 stars)
As an Academy Award-winning actor, Nicolas Cage's career trajectory continues to dive deeper into the obscure and bizarre with his project choices. This Australian-Irish collaboration heads to the shores of Western Australia to deal with the issues that can occur on ‘localist’ beaches. The territorial component of these beautiful surf havens comes under the control of those living there.
Cage plays a man who had grown up in the area, but after a tragic event, he moved to California to live with his mother. He aimed to make enough money to return to Luna Bay and purchase the family home that overlooked the coastline. On the day, he brought his son (Finn Little) to have a surf and show him the house he planned to share with his family. Yet, things fail to turn out how he had planned as a group of locals confront the two surfers with the mantra, “don’t live here, don’t surf here.” Actions and words that lead to the man doing all he can to establish his place on the beach with the leader of the group, Scally (Julian McMahon). These events push him to lose everything and come to terms with what he truly believes in himself and how he was influenced by his past.
Director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) leans into the 70s aesthetic with the overexposure and surrealist camera angles that keep this story blurring the lines of reality. Set in modern-day Australia, there is a strangely claustrophobic feel to the contained set of a small beachfront that is controlled by a toxic surfer cult leader. Nicolas Cage is at the centre of the drama, which will cause most to wonder why his character was willing to endure all that he experienced. Julian McMahon tends to outshine Cage as the villainous and psychologically manipulative leader with nefarious plans for the man who only wants to relive his glory days. Yet, as the story weaves between the past and present and the overlapping characters, the discombobulating elements eventually make sense.
The Surfer is a psychological thriller that will leave most yearning for a more satisfactory conclusion. Still, this film sits squarely in Nicholas Cage's filmography of odd choices that attempt to showcase his unique thespian manner. One that will appeal to his devoted fanbase, but may fail to convince anyone to sign on to become one of his devotees.
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REEL DIALOGUE: Is life suffering?
John 9:2-5 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Julian McMahon’s character keeps preaching about the need for suffering for people to truly live, while his cult-like following twists the truths of this reality of life. Jesus does better at addressing this topic in his words presented in John 9.
It is an example of God's mysterious ways and how some of life's difficulties can be a means of showing mercy and grace in people's lives. This portion of the Bible merely opens the door to the conversation and redeems the horrors from this film and the suffering experienced by many in life.
