Wiped Out: Nicolas Cage Rides the Edge of Reality in The Surfer

I can’t say I’m the world’s biggest Nicolas Cage fan, but for the past seven or eight years, I’ve been loving Cage’s largely horror-driven renaissance. Granted, I don’t like everything he’s done in that time, but movies like Mandy, Color Out of Space, and Dream Scenario have made his name an immediate green flag for me. Every time I hear about a new Nic Cage film, I’m instantly intrigued, so naturally, The Surfer has been on my to-watch list for a little while now. The marketing kept the movie’s plot mostly under wraps, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from it, but I knew one thing. I was excited to see another big-screen effort from one of my favorite actors in the world, and that was enough to get my butt in a seat on opening day.

The Surfer was directed by Lorcan Finnegan, and it stars Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, and Justin Rosniak. In the film, Nic Cage plays an unnamed man who returns to the Australian town where he grew up, and he wants to take his son surfing. But almost immediately after he and his kid step foot on the beach, they learn that the locals there don’t take kindly to outsiders, even if they’re originally from the town.

These belligerent residents force the pair to change their plans, but for some reason, the titular surfer stays in the parking lot even after his son goes home. From there, anything and everything that can go wrong for the poor guy does go wrong, and soon enough, everybody he meets, not just the jerks on the beach, turns his life into a living hell.

I’m not going to bury the lead. I just got home from watching The Surfer, and I’m not entirely sure what I think of it. I need to let the experience stew in my brain a bit longer before I can say if I liked it or not, but there is one thing I know for sure. This is a very interesting movie, so at the very least, it gives viewers quite a bit to chew on.

Let’s start with the protagonist’s descent into what may or may not be abuse-induced madness. Like I said, no matter what this man does, nothing seems to go right for him, and the filmmakers do an excellent job of finding new ways to push his buttons. Just when you think things couldn’t get worse for the poor guy, the script throws another horrible wrench his way, and to the surprise of no one, Nic Cage plays the role just about perfectly.

As his character’s life unravels more and more, Cage tweaks his performance to reflect the man’s deteriorating mental and physical state. He changes his facial expressions, the way he carries himself, and even the way he talks to let you know this guy isn’t well, and there’s a moment involving a picture of his car that might even break your heart a tiny bit.

On top of all that, as the locals pile on the abuse, you slowly start to wonder how much of this story is actually happening and how much is just in the titular surfer’s head. See, some of his tormentors soon begin to gaslight him and tell him he’s not really who he claims to be, and while you may not buy it at first, their case eventually becomes tough to ignore. In fact, almost from the very beginning, The Surfer has a bit of a surreal, dreamlike feel to it, so the more you think about it, the more it makes sense that our narrator would ultimately prove to be unreliable.

Those psychological mind games are hands down the best thing about The Surfer, but they’re also somewhat of a double-edged sword. Sure, they have a fascinating effect on the main character, but the residents’ motives for their behavior come across as incredibly underwhelming, at least initially.

For much of the movie’s runtime, it seems like they’re just being jerks for the sake of being jerks, and if you ask me, that’s not very interesting. These bland antagonists even start to get irritating after a while, so they just might ruin the entire experience. But then again, maybe they don’t.

This is why I’m not entirely sure what to think of The Surfer yet. We eventually do get a real explanation for the locals’ abhorrent behavior, and their horrible antics also have quite a bit of thematic significance. So at the end of the day, it comes down to whether you think that payoff is worth it, and that’s what I’m still trying to figure out.

For obvious reasons, I can’t say much about the characters’ real motives for being so horrible to the surfer, but I can talk about the themes their conduct embodies. At its core, this film is about what our culture likes to call “toxic masculinity.”  It’s about men who think they have to let off some steam by acting like amoral savages every once in a while, and the story unmasks this mindset and shows it for the insidious lie it truly is.

It’s a noble message, but personally, I wish The Surfer had gone a bit deeper into the sexual element of toxic masculinity. Everybody knows it’s wrong to be a jerk, but way too many people today still think being a man entails viewing women as objects. Our culture (and especially men!) desperately need to learn that real masculinity respects women and protects their dignity, and not exploring that disastrous deficiency in our society’s understanding of manhood is a huge missed opportunity.

With all that being said, would I recommend seeing The Surfer? Well, it depends. I don’t think it’s a must-watch, but if you already wanted to see the film before reading this review, or if it sounds like something you think you’d enjoy, I say go for it. Even though I’m still not entirely sure what I think of the film, there’s enough good in it that I think it’s worth checking out, and as I hope I’ve been able to convey, if nothing else this is a very interesting watch that’ll give you a lot to chew on.