Boring, long, and too preachy.

A Masterpiece!

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Scott Eastwood plays John who lives in California where the sun always shines and they all just live to catch a wave because surfing is all that matters. Then there is his brother Ben who is so good that everyone wants a photo of him pushing the boundaries of mans understanding by seeing him splash about a bit in the ocean.Enter a femme fatale who Ben is having some sort of emotionally unstable relationship with. But oh dear she has also caught the eye of the local Latino cartels' son and heir and, as in a bad film string Daniel Day Lewis, 'There will be blood'. We also have side issues of anger management, drugs and some trite story from the Iraq war.Now this is not a bad production and there are a couple of performances of note; indeed Scott Eastwood can act – see 'The Longest Ride' but this just lacks all the essential ingredients that make a good filmatic experience. The actual script is the main failing but overly one dimensional, stereo typical characters do not help and despite the well realised plot twist I found myself just not really caring. It is not a surf film either or a thriller of really a revenge tale just a bit of a not all the believable drama. If you are still interested then go for a rental as I can guarantee you will never even consider seeing this twice.

I was so impressed with this effort that I finally signed up for an IMDb account just to write this review. Bravo for all except some military mistakes with the wardrobe. In the scenes where he is wearing the dress alpha, the green coat has hash marks on the sleeve. Hash marks are worn only after 4 years of service. Hash marks are added every four years of service thereafter. Later dialog reveals that the son had been missing just over a year when the funeral took place. Also, I wasn't clear how his hand got bloodied. But these are minor details to an otherwise high quality production. I am looking forward to more products like this. Thank you for sharing your art.

I was skeptical at the beginning but this movie kept me hooked. The story is simple but engaging and the actors are really good, starting from Scott Eastwood (really like the father !) and Kim Matula, convincing small timer cutie. What was more interesting was the overall evolution of the story and the analysis of the characters...normal people with weaknesses and an average interesting life.Overall is worth watching : do not expect fireworks or much action. Is a simple and fair movie, well written and directed and it's a good proof of most of the actors.

I just saw this movie at the Austin Film Festival this evening. The script was a finalist in the screenplay contest several years ago. I got to meet the writers last year at the festival so I understand what inspired them to write this story. Aside from a well written script are the actors that made this story come to life. The dialog and the acting built a lot of tension between characters in this story.The main character is a young man played who carries this story. His character is very captivating. He wants to do right by his parents, but then his conscience won't leave him alone. He finally comes to terms with his conscience and is willing to do something about it, but what he and his father thinks will happen doesn't.