From today's Oregonian....
I'll say this for the way-too-genial sailing-race documentary "Morning Light": It makes a lovely keepsake for its subjects.
This vanity project is produced and hosted by Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt. It follows 15 inexperienced Ivy League and maritime-academy students who spend six months training to race a 52-foot sailboat in the 2007 TransPacific -- "the Indianapolis 500 of the open ocean."
The doc plays like a failed reality show that doesn't want to offend, right down to the blatant corporate sponsorships: It's incredibly boring if you aren't a sailing enthusiast, and probably only a little less boring if you are. No strong personalities or major disagreements emerge. The kids' insights never go deeper than "The intensity on the boat is super-high." They also complain about the lack of Starbucks during their nearly 11-day race, and have to train around snowboarding injuries. Wah.
The camera can only film the on-deck action from so many angles before it gets repetitive. The musical score is pabulum. Race technology and tactics are barely explored, and you never get a sense of the larger field of competitors.
At one point during the big race, the kids get passed at close range by a team of pros so seasoned, they wrote the navigation software the kids use. I was begging the camera crew to follow them.
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C; 105 minutes; rated PG for language and some rude dialogue.
'Morning Light' (The Oregonian, Friday, Oct. 17, 2008)
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