Len Smithy is the arrogant captain of the team of young sturdy lifeguards on the same stretch of Australian beach where his father had been before him, and his father before that. He’s won the Team’s annual challenge race five times now and is used to being the undisputed king of this patch of sand and surf. However, that is all about to change with the arrival of a handsome newcomer Phil who immediately scores a point with the Team’s management when he saves a drowning boy on his first day on duty.Whilst that make him a hero in certain quarters, Len takes an instant dislike to his new colleague who is relaxed, happy and very personable : three character traits that are totally alien to him. The fact that Phil is openly gay and gets dropped at work by his boyfriend each day seems to be the final straw for Len.
At first it seems like Len, who like so many Alpha men has more than his fair share of personal issues, is jealous of Phil’s success but then as time passes, it becomes obvious that he is also envious of his sexuality too. Or at the very least, the fact that Phil is so comfortable with himself.
Then things come to ahead when Len loses the Team Challenge Race to Phil, which triggers him going off the deep end completely. Len insists on a night out binge drinking to celebrate Phil’s win and strangely enough he agrees to it. Even when they …. and Len’s faithful lackey Meat … go to a Gay Club on the premise that it will be easier to pick up women there, but it is in fact becoming more apparent that Len wants to have sex. Preferably with Phil, but if not, anyone else in the club who will give him an anonymous blow job.
When the three of them eventually end the night on the beach, Phil is particularly more wasted than the other two, and events suddenly get quite sinister when Len insists on stripping him naked and orders Meat to dig a very big hole.
It is a very powerful homoerotic tale of homophobia set in a surf full of handsome built men in skimpy speedos. This is very much Len’s tale and he is played with such a magnetic force by Matt Levett (best known as Charlie McKinnon in ‘Home & Away’ Australia’s most famous Soap Opera) that it overshadows the other characters. It’s a pity as Jack Matthews who bares all as Phil is a talented actor too, as is ex Brit Harry Cook as Meat. Based on a stage play by Stephen Davis, the movie is directed, co-written, filmed and extremely well edited by Dean Francis. He builds up the story slowly until we are really invested in the final outcome (no spoilers here, but it is not really predictable). What is particularly odd though is that none of the three men are that likable (hot, yes!). No-one likes a nasty bully like Len who hands out so much cruel abuse and victimisation, but like voyeurs we get hooked into how far he will go before he accepts his true nature, and how he will handle it. Hate is often so much stronger than love but for Len it is much more difficult to sustain.
By no means a perfect movie, but it is one that certainly belies its micro budget, and also packs a forceful punch with its intriguing take on how unsettling jealously really can be. Well worth watching.
