An average movie

Even though I have seen so many movies with Nicolas Cage, I can’t remember the last time I saw one of his movies in the movie theater. This one turned out to be quite strange. Indeed, I can’t say I was expecting the US movie star to show up in a thriller like this one taking place in Australia with no surfing whatsoever, in spite its title. Eventually, the end-result was an intriguing mind-f*ck but, to be honest, it never really became fascinating though. In my opinion, the main issue was that the material was just too slight. At least, there is no denying that the director, Lorcan Finnegan, did make the most of it though. Indeed, the mood was pretty neat and there was something rather dreamy not only about the location but also about the way it was visually presented. Concerning Nicolas Cage, he was not bad even though you might wonder if he was not completely out of place in an Australian thriller like this one (it was even pointed out by one of the other characters the fact that he didn’t sound at all like someone born there). Coming back on the story itself, the main asset was the cloud of mystery around, well, pretty much everything. Indeed, who was really this man? Was he dreaming all this? Who were all these local surfers (eventually, you get the name of only their leader, that’s how far they went to describe this group)? Who was the hobo? What was actually going on this damned beach? However, even though withholding information is an efficient way to create an ominous atmosphere, it is also a rather cheap artificial gimmick and, at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure I didn’t care one way or another. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look. 

6/10