It is the second time this week that we have seen something that felt like a love letter to something. While the first one took a more humorous route, “Blueback” is a story about the strength that emulates through the simplicity of love. However, that doesn’t make the movie completely engaging, and we found ourselves reaching for our phones to check for notifications that weren’t there simply because the somewhat slow-moving narrative had us distracted. Nevertheless, the distracting bits were the scenes on land because the ones in water were too stunning to look away from. To put it simply, the entire movie can be summed up as a daughter finding inspiration from her childhood and her mother’s life to fight for the preservation of nature. But as we said before, “Blueback” is a love letter, so allow us to read it out to you.
Spoilers Ahead
Abby And Dora’s Quest To Protect The Sea
“Blueback” starts with Abby taking a deep dive into the sea to bring back samples of a coral reef for inspection. The reef is dying, and Abby is at a loss as to how to help when she receives the news that her mother, Dora, has suffered a stroke. While she is stable, Dora is unable to speak, so Abby decides to go back to visit her. Home brings a lot of memories for Abby, with one of the more significant ones being how she had fallen in love with Blueback. It was her 8th birthday, and her mother had taken her for her first dive, where she met a groper fish, whom she named Blueback. This is one of the most beautiful scenes in the film because it doesn’t just show Abby’s journey but takes the audience with it. We were just as scared as her when she sensed the fish for the first time, and similar to her, we thought it was a shark. But it was a harmless groper that Abby came to love dearly over time.
As she grows up in the idyllic town surrounded by the sea and nature, she finds that it might all be in danger as a corporation has started working there, led by Ted Costello, whom Dora despises. It is hard to describe the events of the movie because, for the most part, it is just the depiction of the lives of the people living in that place, in harmony with nature. How could we begin to talk about the scene where the entire town comes together for a party by the beach or when Briggs and Abby talk about their parents while looking at it? Trying to give words to it would take away from the quiet magic, and we don’t want to do that. So, we will move on to the part where Dora is at an organized protest for the protection of their bay. Abby is there, but she doesn’t stay till the end. The mother and daughter have a fight about it, with Dora telling Abby that she needs to be braver. While they resolve their fight, things have started changing in the bay. The produce is getting less, and its quality is dropping due to the intrusion of outsiders. As Dora and Abby discuss it, they notice that a storm is coming, but Macka’s boat is still in the ocean. They rush towards it, and Dora dives into the sea to bring him back but finds that he is dead. Abby asks her if it was a shark attack, but Dora tells her that his body is just floating in the ocean, so he might have had a heart attack down there.
Following Macka’s death, his license is taken over by the corporation, and they start fishing indiscriminately in the sea, using spearheads for hunting even the protected species. Dora protests this, but she needs to go through the authorities to put a stop to the activities. She finds herself in the midst of a new challenge in addition to the fact that she doesn’t want Abby to leave for school elsewhere. Dora believes that Abby can learn whatever she wants to by being right there, but her daughter insists that it is only by going out into the world that she can learn to better protect her home.
When Dora goes to a council meeting the next day, she presents her case with a lot of passion and facts about everyone’s responsibility toward the future. Abby waits outside, which is when she runs into Ted Costello. Their conversation brings something very important to light. The corporations and the government are always aware of the ecological damage of their activities, but they prefer to ignore it in favor of temporary gains. Abby makes her way inside the meeting and presents the list of species that would be harmed if the industrial activities were continued. But she is not given much heed as she is just a 15-year-old girl.
‘Blueback’ Ending Explained: Does Abby Meet Blueback Again? Does She Protect The Coral Reefs?
Outside, when Abby notices that men are going fishing with their spearheads, she rushes to protect Blueback. When she reaches the underwater cave that he is in, he comes out to meet her, but Abby keeps pushing him to go back inside. Blueback, of course, doesn’t listen, but Abby keeps pushing him away so that he leaves before the spearheads find him. Having no alternative, she punches the fish in an effort to push him back. This finally seems to work, and just in time too. The spearhead that was shot at Blueback almost hits Abby, but she is rescued by her mother before anything can happen. The result of this episode was that the activities of the intruders came under scrutiny. They were breaching the limits of their license, and they had put the life of a teenager in danger. This resulted in their license being revoked and their activities coming to a stop. Abby asks Dora about what happened in the meeting, and she replies that only one of the members saw the merit of their argument. However, that would change in the future if they kept trying.
In the present day, Dora has been silent since Abby came back, though she responds with smiles whenever she brings up something from the past. One morning, Abby takes her mother back to the sea, which is when she finally talks, recounting Abby’s love for the water since her childhood. Dora passes away soon, but her work has made a difference to the people around her.
Abby calls Gitundu and tells him that she wants to start working to preserve the coral reefs. Later, she goes for a dive near Blueback’s old home, and sure enough, he comes out to meet her. She hadn’t seen him after she had saved him all those years ago, maybe because he was mad at her. But it looks like Blueback has forgiven her, only in the way old friends can, and it is the start of creating new memories again.
Final Thoughts
“Blueback” was a beautiful movie to look at, but it needed to be more engaging. It was adapted from a novel of the same name, and for movies like that, we have always maintained that the adaptation must be in accordance with the sensibilities of the audience. There needed to be more dialogue, maybe about the sea and marine life itself, because the excessive reliance on visuals was not hitting the mark. Blueback showed us that it isn’t just important to fight to protect our homes but the homes of those we love. The movie could have been better, but for now, it is nice enough and is an hour and a half well spent.
“Blueback” is a 2022 Family Drama film directed by Robert Connolly.
