The Surfer Review: Intense But An Exhausting Psychological Thriller

RATING - ⭐ ⭐ 2/5*

The Surfer Review Movie Talkies:

The Surfer is an unconventional film from start to finish. Nicolas Cage stars in the lead role as a seemingly ordinary man who finds himself harassed and tortured over trivial matters. The idea itself feels unconvincing, and to make matters worse, the climax descends into brutality that does not fit within the overall tone. While the film attempts to build psychological tension, and a few moments do manage to click, the overall impact is far from what one would expect from a decent thriller. By the end, it becomes tiring, repetitive, and even headache-inducing.

The Surfer Story:

The story follows a surfer who arrives at a beach with his young son. His simple desire is to spend time surfing with the boy and eventually buy a house nearby, a property that once belonged to his father. What seems like a straightforward plan quickly spirals into something unnecessarily complex. A local gang of bullies refuses to let him access the beach and begins tormenting him in ways that seem exaggerated and increasingly cruel. The harassment escalates to a point where he is forced to question his very reality, as if everything he believed in never existed. From deception to manipulation, and finally to a violent fightback in the climax, the narrative keeps circling around without ever truly arriving at a meaningful point.

The root of the problem lies in the screenplay, which fails to establish a logical foundation. It is simply not believable to see a man so helpless in a public, crowded space. If the setting had been a remote island or an isolated forest, perhaps the premise would have felt convincing. But here, with so many people around—including a police officer, a photographer, a shopkeeper, and other bystanders—the helplessness comes across as manufactured. The narrative further collapses in the final act when it is revealed that the entire ordeal was staged merely to “test” the protagonist. Really? Who would almost murder a man, break his spirit, and push him into psychological collapse just because he wanted to buy a piece of land? The so-called “bum’s revenge” in the end feels completely out of context and explains nothing. To make things worse, the recurring hallucinatory images the protagonist sees are irrelevant to what is happening around him. They return again and again without purpose, making the whole experience frustrating and tedious.

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The Surfer Cast:

Even Nicolas Cage, known for his unpredictable but often magnetic performances, fails to leave much of an impression. Watching a sophisticated, financially secure man devolve into a pitiful wreck—begging for water and food within the span of a single day—feels absurd and almost insulting to the audience’s intelligence. I wonder why Cage even agreed to this script. Julian McMahon delivers a decent performance but leaves no lasting impact. Nic Cassim and Miranda Tapsell make the most of their small roles, while Justin Rosniak and Alexander Bertrand are watchable yet limited by weak material. The rest of the cast is barely worth mentioning.

The Surfer Movie Review:

On the technical side, François Tétaz’s music adds little value. The background score fails to heighten the intensity of key scenes, leaving several sequences flat. Radek Ładczuk’s camerawork is competent, providing a few visually interesting shots, but even strong visuals cannot rescue poor storytelling. Tony Cranstoun’s editing, especially in the second half, drags the film further down. Entire stretches feel repetitive, with scenes that either linger endlessly or shift abruptly without making sense, offering viewers unwanted opportunities to tune out.

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Ultimately, the real blame lies with Thomas Martin’s writing, which provides neither clarity nor coherence. Director Lorcan Finnegan attempts to build intrigue with his storytelling style and visual framework, but his efforts are wasted on material that is shallow at its core. As the saying goes, you can’t make a dead horse run. No matter how much Finnegan tries, The Surfer remains a half-baked concept stretched into an exhausting feature. In a nutshell, The Surfer is intense at times, yes, but more often it is exhausting, illogical, and unsatisfying.

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