Drift
Review by Anthony Morris
It's the early 1970s, and for brothers Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) and Andy Kelly (Myles Pollard) surf is where it’s at.
Unfortunately, ever since they arrived with their mum (Robyn Malcolm) at the small town on the Western Australia coast, they’ve been up against it.
As kids they were outsiders, then Andy broke his ankle surfing and his dreams of going pro died, and now he’s toiling away at the local sawmill while Jimmy’s caught up with the local bikie gang doing petty crime.
Then professional surf photographer and hippy van owner JB (Sam Worthington) drifts into town with a mate’s daughter (Leslie-Ann Brandt) in tow, and suddenly a whole new world opens up for them – a world of making wet suits and surfboards for a living.
But with rival surf companies not exactly keen on competition, evil bikies (led by Steve Bastoni) seeing surfboards as a great way to smuggle drugs and the local bank manager looking to shut them down – not to mention the brother’s own troubled relationship – do they have any real hope of making it.
As yet another in a long list of Australian dramas that are well shot but based on a script that could have done with a few more drafts, this at least makes good use of some striking West Australian scenery.
Story-wise at least things keep happening so it’s never exactly boring, though many of those things that happen aren’t exactly high drama – let’s not forget, this is a film that features an evil bank manager and an ending based around needing someone to win the big surf competition so they can collect the prize money.
The bad guy bikies are pretty laughable and the 70s setting would be a good excuse for a lot of 70s music except the soundtrack wanders off towards the present day fairly early on.
With that taken into account, having two brothers three or four years apart in age played by actors born a decade apart is the least of its worries. At least the surf scenes look good.
2 out of 5
Drift
Australian release: 2nd May, 2013
Cast: Sam Worthington, Xavier Samuel, Myles Pollard, Lesley-Ann Brandt
Director: Morgan O'Neill, Ben Nott
