Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Simon Baker, Roadshow Entertainment.
Cast: Simon Baker, Elizabeth Debicki, Samson Coulter, Ben Spence.
In his directorial debut, Baker displays perceptivity. There’s almost a naive wistfulness in this coming-of-age story.
Described as resisting complacency, finding like-minded souls and discovering just how far one breath will take you, it’s easy to become mesmerised with the leisurely saccharine pace of discovery as boys become men.
It is based on Tim Winton’s award-winning novel of the same name and also sees Baker (The Mentalist, The Guardian) taking a lead role. Inquisitive beyond belief, we follow two teenage boys growing up in Sawyer, a small, unattractive coastal town.
Together Bruce ‘Pikelet’ Pike (Coulter) and his friend Loonie (Spence) discover the excitement of surfing. The pair form an improbable friendship with Sando (Baker), a mysterious older surfer and adventurer, who pushes the boys to take risks that leaves an intensely enduring effect on their lives.
Self-destruction is on the cards as under Sando the young duo is compelled to take larger risks and ride swelling waves beyond their control. A rift develops as adolescence arrives, all the while, each one discovers his own desires and the boundaries imposed by restrictions.
Eva (Debicki), a former competitive skier from the US, is Sando’s partner. She proves to be a bewildering and exciting presence for the boys.
Sando almost becomes the father figure. He’s the instructor who takes them into the surfing world. With books like Moby Dick and White Fang prominently on his bookshelf, the wiser Sando becomes a ‘safe’ father figure. The parents of both boys are present, but are consigned to the story’s side-lines.
While Breath is more than “your moment in the sea,” there are some superb flashes of viewing (in Blu-ray, in particular), courtesy of water cinematographer by Rick Rifici.
