Surfacing

SURFACING intrigued me from quite some time because from the poster and the plot it looked like an horror but as I saw it nearly a year ago, it defied my expectations a lot. Now please follow me.

When the story begins Kate and her friends Joe and David go out for an expedition in the woods for finding Kate's missing father. The trip goes well but as they arrive, it all goes awry because Joe is a slob that always makes sexual avances to Kate and loves to humiliate her. Then David (Michael Ironside), a passerby that could help Kate because he knew her father is forced to follow the two idiot friends in a game and ends up killed despite he was the best character.

And then we are treated to something that is considered the epitome of stupidity, and I don't really know it Tom Green would have been proud or not if he had seen it: Joe makes Kate strip naked and forces her to cavort around the carcasse of a dead heron hanging from a tree. Now that was enough, but at least I didn't left the movie tho at this point, who cares knowing how it ends?

Along with the gross scene mentioned above the problems with the movie are that it followed its plot very little, it looked like they padded for filling the running time (especially after killing Ironside's character, the only one remotely relatable in this mess), the acting was nearly atrocious and the budget low, perhaps something similar to that of MANOS THE HANDS OF FATE. The only reason why I don't give it a 1 it's because of the ok outdoor scenes but even those aren't enough for saving this mess.

Overall, a movie only recommended if you really don't have anything better in your life to do or if you often watch terrible movies for getting a kick out of it. But for the rest, beware...

First of all, I feel I should mention that I have never read the Margaret Atwood novel this movie is based on. (And considering how boring most Canadian literature is, I never will.) I am sure, however, that the novel had more detail and explanation than this movie did. The movie starts off being a quest for a lost parent, but as soon as the protagonists make it to the woods, this quest is almost completely forgotten until the last ten minutes or so! The bulk of the movie has the protagonists canoing or wandering through the woods. There seems to be no point to all this, except maybe to pad out the running time. Maybe this stuff happened in the novel, though I'm sure the novel got into the heads of the characters and maybe therefore given the story a point. The movie has acceptable production values, but the general good look of the movie will not keep viewers awake.

This adaptation wasn't perfect, but covered most of the major plot action. The book is much more in depth, and I'm not sure that I liked having this vision in my mind, but the movie alone was enjoyable. This is one of my favorite novels, and I reread it often. The scene where Kate finds the answer she seeks is disturbing, but relieving. I don't get the same sort of "revelation" that I get from the novel, but had I not read the novel first, I would have enjoyed this movie more. Overall...not bad. This movie is worth checking into, especially if you are a fan of the book.

"Surfacing" is quite a comedown for director Claude Jutra, made a decade after "Mon Oncle Antoine", frequently voted as one of the very best Canadian films ever, and one year before his sadly underrated "By Design", one of the very first positive lesbian movies in history. This film is boring, aimless, and crudely made. The toxic jerk "best friend" male character along for the ride serves no purpose except to drain any possible fun. The film's one redeeming virtue is Kathleen Beller, who has the face of an angel and the body of a sinner. The actors do deserve credit for evidently doing most of their own (particularly the rafting) stunts. *1/2 out of 4.