MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Wind’: Pretty Pictures, Choppy Plot

If you’re one of those people who’s been bemoaning the absence of yachting as a backdrop for a major motion picture, who’s been waiting for who knows how long for a film with first-class footage of men against the sea, “Wind” is the picture for you. If you don’t fit into that category, things are much more problematic.

As directed by Carroll Ballard and shot by director of photography John Toll, who literally had to be tied onto the deck to get the job done, “Wind” (citywide) is lots of fun when the spray is flying. The spectacle of large boats cutting through the foam as agile men cling to the sides or climb to the top of dizzying masts is a bracing one, and director Ballard, as “The Black Stallion” and “Never Cry Wolf” proved, is very assured around competitiveness and the great outdoors.

Unfortunately, once the races are over and people in “Wind” have to talk to each other, most viewers will want to head for the lifeboats. Written by two very different writers (novelist Rudy Wurlitzer and Mac Gudgeon) from a story by three others (Jeff Benjamin and Roger Vaughan & Kimball Lingston), “Wind” is every bit as dramatically choppy and cobbled together as all those hands on the tiller would suggest.

Set in the heady world of America’s Cup racing, and very loosely inspired by the story of Dennis Conner, who lost the Cup and then won it back, “Wind” regrettably lacks a story involving enough to match its backdrop. Its theme, in so far as it has one, is stated in the film by Will Parker, who just happens to believe that the most important thing, in yachting as well as in life, is “finding your own wind, being able to sail along under your own power.”

As played by Matthew Modine, Will is an eager young sailor who, as the PG-13 “Wind” opens, has just been offered a chance to be part of the crew on Reliance, commanded by steely eyed old salt Morgan Weld (Cliff Robertson) against a Cup challenge by the wiliest of Australian skippers, Jack Neville (“Breaker Morant’s” Jack Thompson).

Will should be happy as a clam, but he is involved in a Very Moderate relationship with Kate Bass (Jennifer Grey), something of a salt herself, who has retired from the boating world to pursue advanced work in aeronautics. Should Will pass up his chance for greatness because of Kate? Should she do the same for him? It’s enough to make a person seasick.

One thing “Wind” is not short on is plot complications, and before it is over Kate and Will’s relationship will have gone through as many ups and downs as Reliance on a bad day. Ditto for the story of the races Will is involved in, not to mention the dilemmas of a series of rather silly auxiliary characters, from Weld’s glamorous but eccentric daughter Abigail (Rebecca Miller) to Kate’s genius of an aeronautics mentor, Joe Heiser (Swedish actor Stellan Skargsard) who evinces an unexpected interest in boats just when things look darkest.

All this is not nearly as grim as it may sound, because Ballard has infused “Wind” with an old-fashioned romantic sentimentality that is affecting from time to time. But this and everything else that is good about the picture fights an ultimately losing battle against an inept story that feels like it was constructed from bits and pieces of other, presumably more involving films. It’s a shame that director Ballard, who has gone many years between features, has had to set out this time in such a leaky and unsound vessel.

‘Wind’

Matthew Modine: Will Parker

Jennifer Grey: Kate Bass

Cliff Robertson: Morgan Weld

TriStar Pictures presents a Mata Yamamoto production, released by TriStar Pictures. Director Carroll Ballard. Producers Mata Yamamoto and Tom Luddy. Executive producers Francis Ford Coppola and Fred Fuchs. Screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer and Mac Gudgeon. Cinematographer John Toll. Editor Michael Chandler. Costumes Marit Allen. Music Basil Poledouris. Production design Laurence Eastwood. Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13.