Fridae

Feature film Chasing Mavericks tells a tale of Jay Moriarty, a real life surfer who got famous for riding the monster waves (a.k.a. mavericks) off the coast of California at the age of 16, and passed away in a diving accident in the Maldives at the age of 23.

In real life, Mr Moriarty must have been the nicest, cleanest-living guy ever who just set his mind on his goals and achieved them. That gives the makers of this film a challenge — how to tell a gripping tale of his coming of age and rise to sports stardom given the lack of dramatic tension in his biography.

Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted (who took over directorial duties after Hanson fell ill during early production) apply to Chasing Mavericks the contours of the inspirational film: on his rise to greatness, much is made of Moriarty's single parent family, his alcoholic mother (played by Elisabeth Shue), a close buddy (Devin Crittenden) who may or may not be dealing drugs for the local bully (Taylor Handley), who made life harsh for Jay out of jealousy for his surfing skills. To top it off, Gerard Butler is Frosty, the next-door neighbour and soul surfer who takes Jay under his wing and makes him ready to ride monster waves. While his regimen does not include car waxing, Gerard Butler plays his mentor/proxy father figure as a warrior-philosopher who spouts pearls of near-inscrutable wisdom as he puts the boy through physical endurance training, household chores, and introspective essays.

Much is made out of Jay's struggles due to narratological demands but very little achieved because of either biographical realities, the film's troubled production, or both. Jay comes across too easily as a character who transcends his struggles and tests way too easily for the film to have much dramatic tension or emotional payoff. What comes closest to working in this film is the mentor-student, father-son relationship between Butler and Weston's characters but its success depends on your tolerance for the hippie era spirituality that Frosty so often delivers in the film. What definitely work are the copious scenes of athletic bodies surfing at the beach to music by West Coast bands of the 1990s.