Slightly more intriguing basic entertainment

Rating: 6/10 (26 February 2015)

John Stockwell's Blue Crush treads so close to the line of falling into the category of impossibly unrealistic romance fare but rebounds significantly by having its main character never lose sight of what's important to her. Just as you think the romantic element of the film will hijack the idea of the conflicts of self-motivation and self-doubt the narrator is having with herself, writers Stockwell and Lizzie Weiss rebound and help the romantic interest of the film's lead character motivate her rather than distract her. In addition, the film also respectfully portrays the surfing culture as more than a gaggle of stoned losers that ride waves and do nothing but slum when the tide comes in.
The film stars Kate Bosworth, an actress who, I assume, in 2002 was looking to be the next Kirsten Dunst or Reese Witherspoon until the glory faded, as Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), a teenager working as a maid at a tourist hotel in Hawaii and surfing with her best friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake) on the side. Anne Marie is also taking care of her fourteen-year-old sister Penny (Mika Boorem) after their mother left for Las Vegas with another guy she met, in addition to training for her surfing comeback in a huge, publicized competition in North Shore. Winners, or highly-skilled participants, of the race are known to get surfing magazine deals left and right, and being a famous female surfer, breaking the stereotype, and gaining the glory for women everywhere is part of Anne Marie's dream.
In the mix, she winds up meeting Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis), an NFL quarterback in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl. Both individuals catch the eye of each other, but don't immediately strike up any flirtatious behavior because both have other things on their mind. Overtime, however, the two drift towards each other and wind up becoming closer, with Anne Marie's resistance always remaining in tact, as she doesn't want to be another hilarious story for Matt to tell his teammates when he gets back to the mainlands. However, Anne Marie finds out she may need Matt for the motivation and encouragement that she finds difficult to provide herself with, despite being highly-qualified and filled with talent.
Blue Crush features some superbly photographed surfing scenes, shot with crisp, directorial command by Stockwell and made clear and evocative thanks to the cinematographical work of David Hennings. The final twenty minutes of the film are some of the most electric scenes of surfing I have yet to see, and work wonderfully in terms of shifting the focus away from what could be sentimental romance fluff into something truly breathtaking and original.
At the end of the day, however, Blue Crush, while harmless, is also pretty simplistic; it's bears a very surface depiction of its characters despite not having the predictable pitfalls of its genre. Bosworth accentuates a nice charm, and the way that Stockwell and Weiss avoid the easier route is a commendable feat, on top of all the lush photography, but there's not enough drama that is gripping enough to invest in that doesn't seem oversimplified or voided by a lack of conversation in the film. Blue Crush serves as more intriguing basic entertainment than a great deal of other films made during or after its time, mainly due to the way it nicely avoids convention, yet there's still not a great deal of substance here outside of the fact that the predictably absorbing love interest doesn't monopolize the entire film on arrival.
Starring: Kate Bosworth, Matthew Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Sanoe Lake, Mika Boorem, and Faizon Love. Directed by: John Stockwell.