[ WEEKEND ]
Waves star Blue Crush" may be the first Hollywood film that makes an honest effort to link a solid story about girls with lofty goals to the mystical beauty of surfing.
in ‘Blue Crush’
Bosworth took risks
Review and story by Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.comThe dilemma is that the story must be at least on level footing with the surfing footage or you lose your good intentions to the power of Mother Nature.
And that's what happens with "Blue Crush," a story about three young women trying to survive in the male dominated world of professional surfing.
The characters portrayed by Kate Bosworth, Sanoe Lake and Michelle Rodriguez have big dreams. Rodriguez, as Eden, is a surfboard shaper; Lake is Lina, a clothing designer; and Bosworth, as Anne Marie, is a one-time professional surfer who, after a horrific wipeout, wants to regain her courage and form to make a comeback. She is also caring for her rebellious 14-year-old sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), in a backstory that seems meaningless.
While the theme of girl empowerment is admirable, the love story between Anne Marie and Matt (Matt Davis), an NFL quarterback visiting Oahu, is feeble at best, forgettable at worst. Now, the real star of "Blue Crush" is the famous Banzai Pipeline, where Anne Marie is in training for the Pipeline Masters, which doesn't sit well with local males who believe women's contests waste waves.
The surf contest coincides with an NFL football competition with players staying at the hotel where the three young women work as maids. Anne Marie catches the eye of all-star quarterback Matt, who convinces the women to teach him and his two football-playing buddies how to surf. It only takes a couple of surf lessons before they spend the night. The spontaneous romance, however, lacks magic or spark.
Rated PG-13 "Blue Crush"
Playing at Consolidated Kahala, Kapolei, Koko Marina, Ko'olau, Mililani, Pearlridge, Waikiki and Ward; Signature Dole Cannery, Pearl Highlands and Windward; Wallace Keolu and Laie
ACTRESS KATE Bosworth is a pro, convincing on dry land as the woman hoping to regain her surfing prowess, and in the water, paddling around in the ocean's perilous swells. (She is really out there in very large waves; there's no CGI here.) But she does look a bit frail when compared to real pro female surfers who would never, ever wear bikinis as skimpy as Bosworth's for obvious reasons.
But that's Hollywood.
Rodriguez's anger and lip-curling snarl throughout the film is tiresome and puzzling.
While Rodriquez's character is forgettable, Kauai girl Lake is the film's most pleasant surprise. Her acting is appealing and believable. Lina is tough but there is also a tenderness there. Sanoe Lake has a career in Hollywood ahead of her.
The Banzai Pipeline is photographed in such sublime form that even experienced surfers who attended last month's special screening were awestruck by the fearsome power and beauty of a place they'd surfed many times. Give credit to water photographers Don King and Sonny Miller for presenting beauty and terror above and below the water.
But is the photography too compelling? I found myself tuning out the storyline in anticipation of seeing another immense set, horrific wipeout, or glorious tube ride.
Stockwell, a surfer himself and co-writer of "Blue Crush," clearly understands the sport. He packed the film with four of the best female wave riders in the world as stunt doubles, the best water photographers, made his female stars go out in truly demonic waves, and he captured it all on film.
Too bad the love story and other subplots are just another of Pipeline's victims.
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UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) enjoys teaching pro quarterback Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis) how to surf.
Bosworth took risks
She comes into the interview room at the Ko Olina resort, an all-American blonde, smiling and tan, dressed in a white gauzy peasant blouse and ankle-length skirt."Hi, I'm Kate," Kate Bosworth says. She's here to talk about her starring role in the Universal/Dreamworks, Hawaii-based film, "Blue Crush," opening nationwide today.
The movie is filled with stunning footage of bonecrushing, life-threatening waves at Banzai Pipeline. It seems incomprehensible to imagine this petite woman surviving a place where most experienced surfers dare not go.
"It was the biggest physical challenge of my acting career," said Bosworth, who had never surfed before. "Obviously, I didn't surf any Pipeline waves, but I was out there."
She got two weeks of surfing lessons from Brian Keaulana, the water safety chief on "Blue Crush." The Pipeline waves were ridden by female pro surfers or men in wigs (!?).
The 18-year-old Bosworth wanted the role of Anne Marie badly because of what she calls the film's "female empowerment" message. "This probably is the best theme of any film I've acted in terms of being honest and straightforward.
"Blue Crush" is a romantic-adventure about professional women surfers living on Oahu's North Shore. It also stars Sanoe Lake, Michelle Rodriguez and Matthew Davis.
There's no mistaking that it's Bosworth sitting in the male-dominated lineup at Pipeline on sizable wave days. There she is, delivering her lines while, just a few yards away, surfers are thrusting themselves into Pipeline's notorious pit.
"Thank God John and Brian didn't leave me out there alone," Bosworth said, referring to director Stockwell and producer Grazer, respectively.
In all the Pipeline scenes, the same guy -- noted big-wave rider Brock Little -- is near Bosworth. He may have looked like any other surfer, but he was her personal water-safety guy. The scene in which a large set catches Bosworth and the other surfers too far inside is "fo' real," she said.
"I remembered that Brian told me to never panic because that's when you drown," Bosworth said. "Brock jumped off his board and bear-hugged me into the water. He wrapped his arms and legs around me, told me to hold my breath and pulled me under."
The wave pounded them, but Little never let go. "He probably saved my life," she said. Bosworth was injured, however, when she was hit in the head by costar Matthew Davis' surfboard at Haleiwa. "His board knocked me out and they took me to the hospital."
BOSWORTH began her acting career at 14, then appeared in The WB teen drama, "Young Americans." She was a champion equestrian who had sung at California county fairs, but who's only early acting experience was in a community-theater production of "Annie." Bosworth said she presented casting directors for "The Horse Whisperer" with a Christmas-card photo instead of a professional head shot when she auditioned for her first acting role. She was credited in the 1998 romantic drama as Catherine Bosworth.
"After 'Horse Whisperer,' I wanted to go back to high school to do other things like athletics," she said. "I wanted to make sure that acting would not be the main focus of my remaining years as a kid."
In 2000, she was featured in the independent children's film "The Newcomers" and in "Remember the Titans" with Denzel Washington.
Bosworth liked the conflict her "Blue Crush" character faced: the go-for-it pro surfer and the blossoming young woman. "I think it's metaphoric for young women in a lot of fields. On one hand, women are supposed to be feminine and vulnerable and also tough in business.
"My character faces issues with her own female friends and the relationship she develops with Matt. She wants to follow her dream as a tough-competing professional surfer. At the same time, she has insecurities she isn't afraid to share."
The film's ending leaves the developing relationship between the couple unresolved. "Matt was her first love and he may not be the person she marries, but she will have fond memories of the time forever," Bosworth said.
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