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Movies about young men seeking out older (generally fallen) men to help them with personal endeavors invariably become about the relationship between the two characters, and typically veer off to show the audience that what matters is not the initial goal but what happens outside of its pursuit. Chasing Mavericks follows this formula carfeully, though it manages to lift itself above cliche with inspiring performances from Gerard Butler and newcomer John Weston, both of whom clearly relish the waves as much as they do facing the camera.
I admit that I know very little about surfing. Though I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the better part of a decade now, the sea and its hidden legends remain mysterious to me. One of the most popular legends is the Mavericks Surf, supposedly the greatest of all surfs which occur somewhere near the Santa Cruz area. Jay (Weston) is a 15-year-old surfer with an itch to escape the mundane realities of life on the land. To hear him talk, you’d think he was a dolphin in a human body. When he discovers that the mythic Maverick wave is just miles away from his home, he turns to legendary surfer Frosty Hesson (Butler) to help him find and conquer the wave. Frosty has his own demons, of course, which have gotten the better of him since his heydays as California’s prize surfer. As he helps Jay train for the ultimate surfing challenge, Frosty learns how to cope with life in the shadows of his own success.
The movie is based on the real life story of the actual Frosty Hesson, but as I know next to nothing about him, I cannot gauge how well the film’s narrative holds up to reality. But as in all biopics, the filmmaker’s goal is to print the legend, not the truth. And by that measure, the movie is surprisingly watchable.
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