“The Perfect Wave”, from director Bruce Macdonald, combines
surfing and evangelical Christianity, an idea we’ve seen before (with “Soul
Surfer”, for instance). It gives the
viewer a great wide screen world tour, from New Zealand, to Australia
(including the outback), Bali, South Africa, and Mauritius. And it give us a near death experience (as in
“Heaven Is for Real”). The film even has
posters (in a family bedroom) of the “The Endless Summer” (Bruce Brown’s 1966
surfing adventure, which I actually saw while in graduate school in Lawrence,
KS).
It is the true story of Ian McCormack, but moved up in time
about thirty years, so it has cell phones and Skype. As it opens, Ian’s parents, back home in New
Zealand, pester him to be more helpful to his mother’s church causes, but at 24
he wants to leave home for a surfing adventure.
He even sells his car to pay for it.
There’s a flashback where as a boy he told his mother that he didn’t
believe in all this religion.
Ian, played by Scott Eastwood, is extremely likeable. He goes with a pal Craig. He demonstrates his social skills in
hitchhiking through the Australian outback, which I would not do. In Bali, he meet Anabel (Rachel Hendrix) and
seems to start a romance. It seems, from
camera appearances (perhaps carelessly edited) that she has even shaved his
chest. But then it breaks up. Ian can go over the top with jealousy.
The recklessness (or indestructibility) continues with some
bungee jumping in South Africa, before he catches a ride to Mauritius. At
night, when surfing, he gets stung by a box jellyfish, or sea wasp. This is a bizarre creature indeed (Wikipedia
link ), almost alien. Its venom is among the
most poisonous in the world, neutralizing the body’s potassium and sometimes
causing quick cardiac arrest. It’s not
included among Reid Ewing’s “Free Fish” (he showed the conventional one as
gross enough, although he also played with a sting ray in that short
film).
Ian has trouble getting help from the locals getting to the
hospital. Actually, if he survived on
his own as long as he does in the film, he probably would not “die” as
shown. But the film gives us a
near-death experience, which is rather interesting. He seems to wind up in “The Core” (as in Eben
Alexander’s book “Proof of Heaven”, reviewed on the books blog, March 30,
2013). But then some dark angels appear,
and finally Jesus (James Burke-Dunmore) speaks to him, forgives him, and says
he can go back, but he has to win others to Christ. Now, I find the idea of having to agree to
recruit others (for anything) to stay alive oneself rather threatening. I don’t think that’s what would happen.
But part of the near death sequence comes from his mother’s
prostate prayer in her home in New Zealand.
She learns that he is in trouble telepathically, which I do buy.
Ian recovers immediately, rising from the bed after having
been pronounced dead (like Lazarus) and is back to normal almost immediately,
as if nothing had happened. Medically,
that wouldn’t happen. Box jellyfish
venom is very painful and recovery is long and capricious. (See TV blog review
of Discovery Channel “Killer Jellyfish” Dec. 14, 2007).
After the showing, at the AMC Hoffman Center in Alexandria,
VA, a woman gave me a DVD of “A Glimpse of Eternity” by Ian McCormack and
report on it soon. McCormack also has a
2-hour YouTube video “Box Jellyfish Death: Miracle Story”.
The film was shown as wide-aspect (2.35:1) but had trouble
fitting the screen, as a little bit of text was cropped in the credits. The real McCormack speaks during the closing
credits.
There was a small audience late Sunday afternoon.
The official site is here. The distributor is Mission Pictures. I don’t
know if this was a paid theater rental.
Wikipedia attribution link for aerial view of Port Louis, Mauritius Author is Peter Kuchar, under Creative Commons 3.0 Share-Alike license.
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