I watched Stefanie in the water and I was disappointed.
First of all it seemed shorter than other surf movies,
and it abruptly finishes at the start of 2012 season when Stephanie is ready to
win back the world title after a troubled year. Just as the 2012
"revenge" is getting started the movie ends stating that she won it.
Well, thanks.
So, from one side it's not an account of her sport career
and achievements, it's too condensed for that, it's missing the "come
back", and probably they didn't want to make that kind of movie at all.
But from the other hand Stephanie doesn't say much of herself.
There's a good part about the assault she was victim of,
but there's not much about her before of after that. So it's not a portrait either.
Someone would say: well, the key it's in the title,
Stephanie in the water, and that's it. Probably you are right. But where is the
storytelling? What can I keep with me after watching this movie? Not much,
really.
I can't say she's a nice person, I can't say she's not, I
can't say she's more focused than other surfers, or that she would kill someone
to win a contest, or that she would give up everything for ..whatever.
After watching it I know her as little as before.
I don't know, I think they missed a good opportunity.
The part I loved the most is something that she says at
the beginning, when she's half asleep in the bed and she teases the others
saying that she doesn't need to be in the water cause she's
dreaming/visualising the action in her mind.
Well, a lot a great sportsmen at the pick of their
careers used "to see" the action, how the event unfold in their mind,
in order to re-live (or pre-live) the action step by step, and being deadly
perfect when the moment arrives.
She was teasing but I believe there was some good truth
in what she said.
Unfortunately there was no searching from the authors on
that.
Overall, they just scraped the surface of a world and then left.
Unfinished.
:(