Review of Chasing Mavericks (2012) by Jc E — 25 Apr 2013

Inspirational sports dramas generally fall into two categories: the criminally underrated/underseen (see also, 'Warrior') or the overrated, stretched beyond believability sap story (see also, 'Varsity Blues').

Then you have the ones that fall through the cracks, like this one. Granted, inspirational surfing movies are kind of a niche subject, but this one still has heart. Newcomer Jonny Weston portrays real-life surfer Jay Moriarity quite well, and Gerard Butler (Playing for Keeps) turns in a nice non-action, non-romantic performance.

There are a couple other decent performances from Elizabeth Shue (Hope Springs), Abigail Spencer (Oz the Great and Powerful), and Leven Rambin (The Hunger Games), but they pale in comparison to the fantastic surfing scenes.

These scenes are the real draw of the film, and it's pretty cool that many of the shots feature the actual actors instead of stunt doubles. The plot is pretty familiar, but sometimes familiar isn't such a bad thing - especially when it's got enough heart to compensate.