The brainchild of Roy Disney, Uncle Walt’s nephew and a yachtsman who has done the epic TransPacific sailboat race between California and Hawaii more than a dozen times, “Morning Light” follows 15 college-age sailors as they go through the rigors of a six-month training program to prepare for the annual 2,200-mile race.
Only 11 will be on the crew of the 52-foot state-of-the-art sloop, and so “Morning Light” has that inevitable “Project Runway/Survivor” moment when a couple of folks we’ve come to know (a bit) are voted off.
Nicely shot, with sunrises casting light on bobbing dolphins, and the strapping bods of the crew jibing in stormy swells, the film offers some of the usual cliches: It’s “about the journey,” not the final result. Teamwork rules. Yada yada.
“Morning Light” could have been more effective if it had gone deeper into the back stories.
Instead, we get hometown/college/age/aspirations, and some voice-overed journal entries and startlingly banal e-mail exchanges.
Once the race is underway, the drama — and the boat — is at the mercy of the wind, the weather and the water.
“Morning Light”
PG for some language. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Directed by Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder. With Roy Disney, Kate Theisen, Chris Schubert, Chris Branning, Charlie Enright, Chris Clark, Graham Brant-Zawadzki, Mark Towill, Robbie Kane, Jesse Fielding, Steve Manson. Opens today at the Esquire.
