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| Brenton Thwaites and Helen Hunt |
Surfing, self-discovery movie "Ride" predictably wipes out too often
The new coming-of-age comedy "Ride" is a modestly engaging yet predictable affair and treads some familiar ground. Hardly revelatory in execution, it feels like its laying groundwork for a TV series. A magazine (Oscar-winner Helen Hunt) follows her son ("The Giver's" handsome Brenton Thwaites) from New York to LA after he drops out of college to surf and find himself, she ends up being the one thrust into self-discovery, rediscovering her sexuality with a younger surf instructor (Luke Wilson), and trying to heal her fractured relationship with her son and herself. Directed and written Hunt in her feature debut, who's done better before, "Ride" is certainly a likable movie and the surfing scenes are good but the weak, well-worn story tends to wipe out on more than one occasion. Hunt, a skilled, award-winning actress, is a less-skilled director with a penchant for giving herself the most footage and the best scenes. On that note, it's part comedy and part vanity project, and while there are some fun moments (and helpful ones if you plan on going into surfing), the human aspect of it seems to ring false, especially when Hunt herself gets in the water. There are some obvious metaphors here about getting back in the water, rediscovering your sexuality (does it always have to be with someone younger?) and mending relationships, all of which "Ride" tends to take a little too seriously. Hunt and Thwaites are good though their arguments become grating, though character actor David Zayas, from TV shows such as "Dexter" and "Oz," steals some scenes as a long-suffering limo driver who encounters this annoying mother-son pair. Hunt is a beautiful, talented actress, but she can do better than this familiar rediscovering-yourself-through-surfing movie.
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