This article contains spoilers for Caught by a Wave. 

The Italian drama film Caught by a Wave was released on Netflix on Thursday, March 25. The film follows the relationship between Sara (Elvira Camarrone), a teen girl suffering from muscular dystrophy (a disease in which one’s bones weaken over time), and Lorenzo (Roberto Christian), a sailor. The two are shown as they cope with Sara’s disease worsening over time. I didn’t like the movie because it was rushed and hard to follow at times; the dramatic plot was portrayed in an uninteresting way.

The movie begins when Sara and Lorenzo meet at a sailing camp in Sicily. While sailing at camp, Sara falls off of her boat due to a leg cramp, which she goes on to find out is a result of her muscular dystrophy entering a new stage.

Sara competes with Lorenzo in a sailing race despite the possible repercussions, and although she says she feels okay after, it is shown that she is not feeling well.

The movie ends with an epilogue that takes place a few months after the race, showing Sara’s best friend, Barbara (Sofia Migliara), giving Lorenzo Sara’s necklace. 

I enjoyed the storyline of the film. It was interesting to see how the disease affected Sara and those who cares about her. The movie showed Sara’s decision making process when she had to decide whether or not to do the regatta, which could be inspiring for those in similar situations.

While Sara and Lorenzo’s story took place, there were many small side stories, however, none of them were very developed. Some of these included a younger girl Sara met at rehab dying, Lorenzo’s aunt moving out of their house, and a fight between Sara and Barbara in which they didn’t talk for days after. The movie contained many scenes that were very dramatic, but there wasn’t enough detail or backstory for the drama to really make sense. Also, there was no development in the side characters; they didn’t add much to the movie.  

The main characters also did not develop much due to the quick pace of the plot, which caused it to be hard to understand parts of the film. Sara and Lorenzo’s relationship seemed to jump right from hanging out for the first time into a serious relationship in a short amount of time. The movie didn’t show the growth of their relationship which made it harder to understand why Lorenzo was so upset when Sara hid her disease from him and when she was hospitalized. 

The ending was also confusing. It implies that Sara died but it doesn’t directly say or show it. I would rather have seen the effects of her death on Lorenzo and her family instead of just seeing a short clip of Lorenzo alone, months later. 

Furthermore, This movie focuses only on the middle of a story. It rushes the beginning and skips the end, leaving a feeling of incompleteness. Due to the quick development of Sara and Lorenzo’s relationship, the beginning of the film seems rushed. Not enough details were provided to understand the background of the characters, making it hard to get invested while watching. Additionally, the way the movie ended was very anticlimactic because there was no resolution, closure, or dramatic end. It wasn’t a happy ending, but it also wasn’t descriptive enough to be a sad ending. The ending would have been better if instead of having an epilogue that takes place months later, the movie showed what happened over those months. 

The plot was fairly unique, however, I would not recommend this film because although it has a nice plot and story, the lack of details and development makes it less interesting than one would expect.

4/10