Forget the love story: 'Blue Crush' is surfing tale with heart

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

BLUE CRUSH (Rated PG-13 for profanity, violence, partial nudity, sexuality) Two Stars (Fair) The story is silly, about a hotel maid in Hawaii who dreams of being a champion surfer. But the surfing footage is outstanding, which is the whole point. Starring Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez. Directed by John Stockwell. Universal Pictures, 98 minutes.

"Blue Crush" wants to be a serious surf movie — akin to "Endless Summer" and "Big Wednesday" — one that celebrates the rebellious outsider spirit that has always been the leading edge of the sport. But while it offers ecstatically adrenalized surfing footage, filmed on location off Oahu, Hawaii, this film has a plot that's straight out of "Santa Barbara."

Written by director John Stockwell and Lizzy Weiss from a magazine article by Susan Orlean, "Blue Crush" is about local-girl surfers in Hawaii, who live on the wrong side of the tracks and work to serve the island's tourist industry. They struggle economically, hungering for the easy life of the professional surfer, with sponsored free travel and great waves.

Among the trio of friends we get to know, the obvious star is Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), a one-time junior champion who nearly drowned. Kate shares a house with best friends and fellow surfers Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake).

They work as housemaids at a luxury resort hotel on the other side of the island, but they're habitually late for work because they're up early to catch the choice waves. Eden is trying to train Kate for a competition where the top female surfers ride the biggest waves in Hawaii. It's challenging and dangerous.

But nearly drowning weighs on Kate's mind, as evidenced by her flashbacks to clunking her head on a rock after a particular hard-hitting wipeout. Now she may have lost her nerve.

To distract herself, she begins a romance with a professional football player staying at the hotel where she works. She hopes it could be a Cinderella story — at least until she overhears wives of the other players gossiping about how her Prince Charming is known for slumming with working-class women.

"Blue Crush" would like to have something to say about class-consciousness, between the townies and the tourists, between the servants and the guest — but, really, that's all just icing on this slightly fulsome cake. What this movie is about is riding waves — and the fear of doing so.

Which seems to make perfect sense, given all the evidence of this film. Working with cinematographer David Hennings, director Stockwell shows exactly what this young woman has to fear.

In big-wave surfing, the waves you don't conquer often conquer you. When a 20-foot wall of water comes crashing down on you, you'd better hope you can hold your breath for a while because the force of the wave can hold you under for up to a minute, before you work your way back to the surface.

By the end of the film, when Anne Marie must either confront her fear or forever be its prisoner, it's not hard to sympathize with her plight. She takes such a pounding that it's no wonder she has second thoughts about challenging the ocean one more time.

Though the story is thin and familiar, it's also a mild change of pace, flipping the script by making the slacker-surfer a woman instead of a dude. Bosworth brings a natural quality to this role that makes you wonder if, in fact, she shares the character's passion for the water.

But hey — no one is going to see this film for the writing. They want to see death-defying surfing — one woman against the awesome power of a righteous wave. In that regard, "Blue Crush" delivers.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, violence, partial nudity, sexuality.