Absolutely Fantastic

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Chasing Mavericks is supposed to be about Jay Moriarity, who was obsessively committed to surfing from the ages of 15 to 22, when he drowned in the Maldives (according to the end of the movie). In reality, this Lifetime Channel-esque biopic seemed to be more of a love fest dedicated to "Frosty", the 40+ year old "total surfing dude" who mentored Jay for twelve weeks (really? that's all?) before the arrival of El Nino and some pretty tubular wave activity. Moriarity surfed the epic waves and survived to tell about it. He was then thrust into instant surfer-dude stardom (a relative achievement, let us be perfectly frank).There are a few questions raised by this movie which can be taken seriously, such as whether it is nobler to seek to excel at something incredibly dangerous than to care for one's future existence. By just about any measure, what Moriarity did was reckless, as proved by his early death. But it did seem to be his choice, so he died a happy man, so to speak. He left a blonde air-heady wife behind, but she knew what she was getting into when she betrothed this guy, so she could not have really been all that surprised.Frosty, on the other hand, renounced reckless surfer-dude activity upon the untimely death of his delicate little wife, who only minutes before her fatal stroke had made him promise never to leave her and the children in the lurch as a result of his passion. The whole Frosty aspect of this story, that he assigned "essays" for his pupil to write about Fear and Observation, etc., struck me as pretty implausible. In any case, that is clearly not the typical formation of surfer dudes, and maybe if Moriarity had spent that time surfing instead he might have lived a couple more years. Who knows?I give this movie a 6 for the fine pictures of big waves. Otherwise, I have to agree with many of the naysayers: there's enough cheese here to cover all of the pizzas ever sold by young Jay Moriarity in the part- time job he held down so that he could save up for a radio to listen to the early morning wave reports. Too bad that his alcoholic mother, ditched by his absentee father (who was replaced by Frosty, thanks to whom Jay ended up dying at 22!) sometimes needed to borrow from his stash. A few other aspects of California culture were treated in this production, but mostly stereotypical stuff handled rather clumsily.

This film came to my attention after one of the students in my year 9 English. class insisted I watch it. I haven't been near my surfboard in five years but I reluctantly gave the movie a go. Chasing Mavericks is a beautifully told story about real life big wave surfer Jay Moriarity. The film begins when Jay's neighbour and eventual mentor Frosty Hesson (played by Gerard Butler) saves a young Jay from drowning. Jay convinces Frosty into teaching him how to surf the once in ten year big waves (aptly named Mavericks) but they end up teaching each other a lot more than just surfing. It is a compelling true story that will just break your heart. Stand-out performances are made by the leads and also Frosty's wife (Abigail Spencer), Jay's struggling mother (Elisabeth Shue) and Jay's girlfriend (Leven Rambin who looks like a young Elle Mcpherson in this role). Surfers will adore this movie but so will anybody who likes to get lost in a good story. Be warned though if you have a surfboard buried in your garage you'll be hunting for it the moment the final credits roll.

We came from the sea? That piece of lunacy starts the movie and it goes down from there. Celebrating the life of someone who was reckless, foolish, selfish, careless, and thoughtless. He went free diving by himself in a strange place. Did I mention foolish? If anything this is an example of how not to live. Just look at all the young men his age that die when they crash their cars racing, speeding, etc. They wrap them around posts, trees, etc. We don't produce movies glorifying the men who kill themselves doing the same reckless things. And we shouldn't have done this movie either.This shows how tragic it is when men abandon their wives. What it does to their family. It is no wonder we have so many tragic deaths of young men, when we glorify people who kill themselves being foolish.

In this case that means I'm not sure what to say. Bits and pieces of this movie work but I can't say the same for the way it all fits together. They try to tell story of a child with absentee dad, obsessed with surfing and more specifically a menacing break in N California known as Mavericks. He is eventually mentored by gruff local surfer named Frosty. The main characters are all aptly played, Butler in particular as Frosty. Some of the surfing footage is well done and attractive. But the movie doesn't give us any insight on why the characters say or do the sometimes odd things they say or do. And it's also very episodic - this happens, then that happens, then that happens - without a bridge between the events or a sense of elapsed time. I like a surfing movie as much as the next guy or maybe more, but this was more of a tease than the real deal.