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Review: ‘The Surfer’ — Messy Nicolas Cage Madness Can’t Stick the Landing
Want to see Nic Cage attack a rat and drink a puddle? See this! Want to see a balanced, mature film? Don’t!
From the first moments of Lorcan Finnegan’s latest film The Surfer, Nicolas Cage’s never named but titular character is obsessed with the past. He is close to the completion of his one major long term goal in life — he is about to close a 1.6 million Australian dollar deal to buy back his childhood home, a grand place on a cliff overlooking the waves on which Cage’s character once surfed as a young boy and teenager, clearly experiencing in those moments an intense sense of freedom, a genuine ecstasy, that he has spent his entire life trying desperately to rediscover and feel once more. He has brought his son with him, excited to not only close the deal on this lavish home and return to surfing having waited so long and worked so hard for it, but also to introduce his son to that same freedom and joy. It’s a simple goal, right?
It all seems idyllic: the beautiful waves, the warm sun beating down, the crunchy sand under-foot. Every time Cage’s character imagines hitting the waves, enchanting music plays and Cage’s facial expression turns euphoric. But, of course, there is a problem: the Surfer’s beach has, in his…