BLUE CRUSH
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
Yeah, I admit it – I was one of those hoity toity critic types scoffing at this movie from the get go. Ultimately, the joke was on me, as Blue Crush surprised us all by being a competent little character piece aided by some of the best surfing visuals ever captured on film. Kate Bosworth plays Anne Marie Chadwick, who is an orphan essentially. She and her younger sister Penny have been abandoned in Hawaii by a flighty mother who has since shuffled off to Vegas in search of a new sugar daddy. Anne Marie and her friends (played by Girlfight's Michelle Rodriguez and real surfer Sanoe Lake) live for the waves, going so far as to wake up at predawn hours and calling surf hotlines to get a head start on the day's prospects. Kate is the best of the group, but finds herself perpetually holding back based on an old competition accident that has fueled her self doubt and fear ever since. When not riding the ocean blue, the girls find time to work as maids at the local hotel, earning enough for gas and their ramshackle commune of a house they rent.
Enter what initially feels like a tired plot device as a team of hunky (and some chunky) football players soar into town, one of which is interested in hiring out the girls for surf lessons (and presumably some nookie as well). Luckily, this spirals into an interesting commentary on the social classes of Hawaiian surfers, and their disdain for both newbies and pretty boy footballers like Matthew Davis' Matt Tollman. On the flip side, the tourists don't hide their disdain for the female surf rats either. When Anne Marie eventually becomes romantically entangled with Matt, it introduces an interesting internal battle since she knows that logically, the relationship is doomed. Not only does Matt pose the threat of being a one week stand who'll move onto another bed in another city, but her irrational attraction to him also poses a threat to her chances at an upcoming surfing competition, which Michelle Rodriguez takes pains to point out to her over and over again. And in Kate's absence, her sister begins hanging out more and more with the dangerous local surfer boys.
This smartly written soap opera results in a satisfactory conclusion, complete with some awe inspiring camerawork that puts the viewer inside the tubes. Unfortunately, a bit of shoddy CG compositing results in some shaky scenes in which Kate Bosworth's face is obviously plastered onto the head of another girl during the inner tube close-ups. Though it's not egregious enough to constitute a deal breaker. Paul Haslinger's score adds extra juice to the proceedings.
On a strange side note, the script is based on a magazine article titled Surf Girls of Maui which was written by Susan Orlean. This is the same Susan Orlean who later wrote the novel The Orchid Thief, and was portrayed by Meryl Streep in the twisted film version entitled Adaptation. Small world.