A Onda dos Sonhos

From the thoroughly mediocre school of filmmaking, here comes director John Stockwell's 'Blue Crush'. Its graduates...uh, actors include Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and a bunch of other pretty people you've never heard of. Bosworth is Anne Marie, the super-talented surfer with a confidence problem. Before the movie is half over, she's in love with a pro quarterback and struggling to gumption up for the big all-girls surf championship. It's your standard 1980's Tom Cruise picture.

If a movie with such modest ambitions is supposed to make you want to go out and take up surfing, I say, hand me my 'Point Break' DVD instead. Sure, 'Blue Crush' is professionally made and the camerawork is fine, but how hard is it to pretty up shots of the Hawaiian ocean when it's in the form of gorgeous, humungoid waves? That's a natural beauty that speaks for itself and doesn't need Hollywood to flaunt it. As for the screenplay by Lizzy Weiss & Stockwell, well, they're proficient with the surfing lingo. They're also absentminded enough to bury their various hanging plot threads in an undertow. The flick is not trying to be a deep meditation on the entire wave-lovin' experience, but that's no excuse for staggering along with such a sub-par story.

As unremarkable as they may be, the female leads are about the best thing in the film. They all look smart in bathing suits---the words "woo hoo" come to mind---and they're fairly natural. Plus, these likable babes don't grate with too many, "you go, girl" comments. Rodriguez even smiled once or twice, which confirms that she DOES have more facial expressions than just snarling and pouting. But despite the physical beauty of the waves and the girls, the film they're in is generic goop. Parents will be happy that all the sex is kiss-kiss-fadeout, there's nary a drug, and only a handful of cuss words. All the same, I'm certainly not happy with the content of 'Blue Crush'. It's just not tubular, dude.

In Hawaii, Anne Marie Chadwick (Kate Bosworth) is a local surfer girl, who had an accident three years ago when she was on the top of her career. She almost died in a huge wave, but now she is preparing for an international competition, with the support of the best friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake), and her younger sister Penny Chadwick (Mika Boorem). Anne is traumatized with her accident, and is quite afraid of the big waves, but she aims to achieve a sponsor to follow her career and have the necessary financial support. Some days before the competition, she has a crush on the football player Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis). 'Blue Crush' is a good popcorn film, having a shallow story but compensated by the wonderful places and the big waves in Hawaii, and the very beautiful young cast. An excellent entertainment for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon for the whole family. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): 'A Onda dos Sonhos' ('The Wave of the Dreams')

Pretty enjoyable story about beautiful women do extreme surfing to prepare for a competition and one of them (Kate Bosworth) falling in love with a football player. I love that John Stockwell directed this and a few years later directs Into the Blue which is also based around water with a different story I absolutely love that movie! Unfortunate how Blue Crush has a 5.7 it deserves better even a little.

I don't understandn the reviews people are giving that sound like they expected so much more from this movie. Pretention, I'm guessing. The cast was great. Plenty of laughs. Stunning shots in and out of the water and a happy ending. It certainly isn't the most profound movie, but I'm pretty sure they werent going for that anyways. I like it for a feel good movie. I've watched at least ten times and I still enjoy it for what it is. If i want a riveting storyline I'll watch something other than a surfing movie, duh.

The best we should reasonably expect from a movie like `Blue Crush' is that we will be treated to some stunning footage of surfers riding the world's greatest waves (along Hawaii's Pipeline, natch) to personal fame and glory. We certainly get that in abundance - but what we have less right to expect, perhaps, is that the film will offer anything else of any real quality. After all, we've been to these kinds of movies before, harking all the way back to those halcyon Bleach Blanket Bingo days when Gidget, Moondoggie and the rest of those addle-brained, teeny-bopper cut-ups aspired to nothing higher than a life of eternal youth spent wallowing in the bleach-white sands of Santa Monica or Malibu. In the case of `Blue Crush,' therefore, I am happy to report that the screenplay - by Lizzy Weiss (based on a magazine article by Susan Orlean) -provides just enough touches of realism to keep this new film both life-sized and interesting. And the majority of the credit goes to the film's protagonist, Anne Marie Chadwick who, much to our surprise, engages our sympathies from first moment to last.

Anne Marie is no bubble-headed, bleached-blond bimbo with nothing on her mind but winning the big Pipeline competition. Although that is, indeed, part of her life's plan, Anne Marie is, also, an intelligent, pragmatic young woman, fully aware of both her strengths and weaknesses and just trying the best she knows how to make her life work for her, the young sister in her charge and the two surf buddy girlfriends she lives and works with. Anne Marie is also riddled with insecurities, as she struggles to overcome the fear instilled in her by a near-fatal accident in that very same spot a few years earlier. Meanwhile, she and her pals work hard trying to eke out a living as maids at a posh hotel, earning just enough money to keep a roof over their heads and pay some of their bills so they will be free to head to the coast at the first sign of prime `Surf's Up' conditions.

The acting in the film is really quite impressive. As Anne Marie, Kate Bosworth lights up the screen with her subtly nuanced, poised and dignified performance. She knows how to use understated facial expressions to convey the thoughts and feelings of the character she is portraying. Equally compelling are Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake as her fun-loving buddies, Mika Boorem as her little sister, and Matthew Davis as the professional football quarterback who becomes her love interest. Director John Stockwell, to his credit, manages to keep the majority of the scenes intimate in tone and realistic in nature, rarely allowing the narrative to wander into overwrought melodrama or teen-movie farce. Even the obligatory fight scene is kept restrained and believable.

There are occasional weaknesses in the film – a gaggle of snooty football wives and groupies who snub Anne Marie for being too lower class for their tastes are the primary offenders – but, on the whole, `Blue Crush' turns out to be a much better film than its subject matter would ever lead us to expect. That comes as a particularly pleasant and un-looked-for surprise here in the shank of the summer movie going season.