• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Newcity Film

Reviews, profiles and news about movies in Chicago

  • Newcity
    • Newcity Network
    • Best of Chicago
  • Art
  • Brazil
  • Design
  • Film
    • About Newcity Film
    • Contributors
  • Lit
  • Music
  • Resto
  • Stage

Review: Chasing Mavericks

October 26, 2012 at 5:38 am by Ray Pride

Ray Pride by Ray Pride
October 26, 2012October 28, 2012Filed under:
  • Biopic
Finding a good dad by riding a big wave is the theme of “Chasing Mavericks,” a coming-of-ager based on the life of a North California surfer. After his military dad went AWOL seven years ago, fifteen-year-old Jay (Jonny Weston) grows up as the man of the house. He irons his mom’s outfits, and gets her out of bed and off to work on time. He looks up to his neighbor Frosty (Gerard Butler), a surfer and roofer and a father of two girls. Jay addresses him with “sir.” They start a twelve-week training regime, “Four Pillars of a Solid Human Foundation,” to prepare for the big wave season. Jay writes three-page, typed, single-spaced essays on observation and fear, and learns to hold his breath under water for four minutes. The screenplay by Kario Salem, with story credit to the team of Jim Meenaghan and Brandon Hooper (playing a surf magazine photographer), adds indifferent filler about a sweetheart, based on the one the real Jay did marry in 2000 and who collaborated with this production. Other disposable plot material involves Jay’s co-worker at a pizza joint and some mean delinquents who deal drugs and badmouth Jay. Co-directors Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted are earnest about life lessons, yet less eloquent than the surfers in the documentaries “Riding Giants” and “Step into Liquid.” With Elisabeth Shue, Abigail Spencer, Leven Rambin, Taylor Handley, Scott Eastwood. 105m. (Bill Stamets)
“Chasing Mavericks” opens Friday.
Ray Pride

Author: Ray Pride

Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic, editor of Movie City News and a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine. He is also a photographer: his history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” in words and images is forthcoming. Check a few signs on Twitter (@chighostsigns) as well as daily photography on Instagram (instagram.com/raypride). Twitter: @RayPride. (Photo: Jorge Colombo.)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Google

Related

Tagged:
  • Chasing Mavericks
  • Curtis Hanson
  • Elisabeth Shue
  • Gerard Butler
  • Jonny Westion
  • Michael Apted

Post navigation

Previous Post Love’s Struggle Through the Ages: The Tolerance of “Cloud Atlas”
Next Post Review: A Late Quartet

Primary Sidebar

Popular Stories

  • Film 50 2017: Chicago’s Screen Gems
    Film 50 2017: Chicago’s Screen Gems
  • God's Only Man: A Review Of Lynne Ramsay's "You Were Never Really Here"
    God's Only Man: A Review Of Lynne Ramsay's "You Were Never Really Here"
  • Film 50 2016
    Film 50 2016
  • Review: Detention
    Review: Detention
  • By A Nose: A Review Of "Back to Burgundy"
    By A Nose: A Review Of "Back to Burgundy"

Sign up for Newcity’s free email newsletter

Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2018

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.