Chasing Mavericks

Sports movies by and large are metaphors. Their function is to tell you to go for your dreams—after all, this guy didn't give up on his. They're formulaic, but the good ones rise above that. Chasing Mavericks does not rise above it, although there is something rather unrefined and great about Gerard Butler's portrayal of Frosty, kind of Mr. Miyagi of big-wave surfing. His neighbor Jay (Jonny Weston) wants to surf Mavericks, a point along the coast in Northern California that is unlike any other surfing area in the world: bigger and more dangerous—you get the picture. And so Frosty teaches the kid and dispenses life lessons along the way. The surfing is pretty tame, thereby matching the script. But, again, Butler is worth watching. Hard to believe this movie required two multiple-award-winning directors (Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted) and still washed ashore so average.