Movie Review: ‘The Surfer’
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Cast: Nick Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell
Plot: A man returns to him hometown in Australia’s south-west only to find that the locals aren’t welcoming. Determined to close his house purchase and hit the waves, he settles into a game of resilience under the intense Australian summer.
Review: Straight up, as a reviewer, in the local area this was filmed and set in, we applaud the accuracy of the setting when Nicolas Cage gets called a ‘Seppo’ by an Australian in a rural town. Although the director isn’t coming from an Australian background this attention to detail goes a long way to making us feel at home. The situation itself is not an uncommon for this part of the world. Small towns south west of Perth a mostly coastal and attract a great deal of tourist traffic for the wineries and perfect beaches. With their local areas being disrespected and crowded with visitors, there can be tension against ‘blow-ins’. With Nicolas Cage going from stubborn to mind-meltingly insane over such an issue, we’re in for a fun time.
Our unnamed Surfer turns up on a beach with his own teenaged son with boards in hand. He grew up nearby and is looking to buy his family house overlooking the bay. But first, a return to his old beach. Unfortunately it’s become the local spot for an aggressive group of locals who will do more than just intimidate, they’ll turn to violence. Whilst most visitors quickly move on, the Surfer wants to make a point and holds vigil in the carpark. Although he attempts to hold off odd locals, vandalism and theft, the attacks turn psychological. Affected by dehydration, hunger and the sweltering sun, the gaslighting by the locals sets in and he conflates his personality with that of a vagrant.
It’s a bit odd finding Cage in a movie shot in Yallingup, but it’s a great way to get eyes on a small production. The attempts to explain away his American accent while the character is supposed to have grown up locally are clunky and feels like it was added after the casting. The outside perspective of the film-maker also comes across in the fascination of the local wildlife. They must’ve swung by a local animal park and sprinkled in shots of various insects, kangaroos and an echidna. This could, of course, be a call back to the classic Walkabout, a similarly outsider perspective on the Australian landscape that included the same editing quick.
As much as the landscape is an essential aspect of how this plays out, the dynamic between bug-eyed, twitching Cage and the calm and affable Julian McMahon (son of an Australia Prime Minister) is centre stage. As Scally, McMahon seems to hold powerful influence over the local mob, extending that reach to law enforcement. A bit of snooping into his online presence reveals him to be something of a manosphere influencer. This aspect of the character seems like an interesting thread to explore, such figures being a controversial part of the culture these days, but it doesn’t do much except for setting up a late game switch.
It’s with this ending that things don’t come together as well as we’d hoped. The downward spiral of Cage’s Surfer is worth the price of a ticket on its own and the local flavour makes it more fun. The ways in which the locals torment Cage and play mind-games with him are suitably infuriating and you start to hope they get what they deserve. When the ‘twist’ is revealed, Cage seems weirdly fine with going along with things and essentially forgiving the Bay Boys for the abuse they put him through. We were waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The Surfer is a fun ride, but the crest doesn’t crash down in a satisfactory enough manner to make it unmissable. Finnegan has a good tracks record as a director up until this point and we still consider them one to watch.
Rating: SEVEN out of TEN
