The Surfer
The Surfer
2025, 100 mins., R
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan.
Written by Thomas Martin.
Produced by Leonora Darby, James Harris, Robert Connolly, James Grandison, Brunella Cocchiglia, Nicolas Cage, Nathan Klingher.
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak.
*** out of ****
“The Surfer” is about the suffering one must go through to obtain what is most desired. Being relentlessly tormented and prevented from obtaining what should be rightfully yours is the point. The film navigates the treacherous waters of toxic masculinity rather than the tasty waves of the Pacific Ocean but boy would it be nice to experience the water just once.
The film follows the titular Surfer (Nicolas Cage) as he tries to take his son (Finn Little) surfing off a particular patch of Australian beach so that they can view his childhood home. It is the Surfer’s goal and desire to potentially purchase the home for his family and offer his son the same experiences he had growing up there. The surfer’s every attempt to secure funding for the mortgage on the house is met with resistance from his bank and lender. His attempts to take his son surfing off this particular spot is thwarted by the toxic locals who are led by Scally (Julian McMahon). The rather exclusive group of guys see the beach as being theirs and protect from outsider non-residents. “Don’t Live Here, Don’t Surf Here” they tell the Surfer.
Much of the film is set in the parking lot leading to the beach as the Surfer refuses to give up in his attempts to surf the beautiful waters. But his refusal leads to the group of locals causing him harm. They steal his surfboard and claim it as their own, vandalize his car, take his shoes, take his phone. They literally reduce him to a pathetic mess of damaged goods because they believe that in order to get what he most wants. Everybody who claims to work with him always ends up working against him and pretty soon his refusal to leave turns into his prevention from leaving.
The film always ups the stakes in unexpected ways to involve in the Surfer’s plight. Even as he becomes increasingly pathetic we somehow still want him to obtain what he wants. He continues in his pursuits long after most people would’ve given up because they mean that much to him. The title and character are ironic because both are called the Surfer yet the film isn’t really about surfing so much as the pains one goes through to be able to surf. Toxic Masculinity reigns supreme in this small portion of the world in which the men all take a personal interest and amusement in inflicting torment. They relentlessly harass the local bum (Nic Cassim) who lives out of his broken down station wagon in the parking lot while living to piss off Scally and his vermin by posting missing pictures of his dog which he suspects they killed. They even conduct a kind of baptism once they have suffered enough on the latest members of their clan where they repeatedly hold them underwater to achieve their final crossover.
This is also the kind of movie that doesn’t let its characters or the audience off so easily. I didn’t like the ending because the surfer obtains and embraces a form of manhood that is against his nature and is set free from it by a final anticlimactic act of violence that the movie wasn’t building towards. I got the feeling of either the screenplay should’ve quit while it was ahead or they should’ve ended it how they wanted to from the start. The film leaves you down instead of up which might have some logic to it but it also comes up empty and cold and defying the beaming rays of sun that scorch the screen.
