Reefs In the Sea is a Norwegian summer flick/Chick Flick movie, made in 1965, giving a picture of a typical summer in southern Norway, with sailing, bathing, romance, and young teenage girls in bikinis.
The actual plot is centered around a middle-aged author, living in seclusion in a house in that part of the country, who just happens to have a teenage daughter who decides to visit him, and to top it off, she brings along two friends. The three girls have, of course, boyfriends, arriving later on a yacht —but they are delayed by some technical problems.
Thus, the girls have the opportunity to frolick for a while without them, to the chagrin of the fifty-year-old father, who cannot help himself and gets smitten by one of his daughter´s friends. Being a Dogged Nice Guy, he keeps himself in check but uses this experience as a topic for a new novel.
Tropes:
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Lone is dark brown, Marit is blonde, and Eva is auburn shading over to red. To expand it further, we see Lone as the Brainy Brunette, taking interest in Mørk`s authorship, while the two others subvert it by making Marit a fiery blonde. Although Eva seems a bit moody, she is far from dumb.
- Book Ends: The movie begins and ends with author Mørk alone in his house, writing.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The girls: Eva has a red bathrobe, Marit has a blue one, and Lone, the oldest, has a yellow one - and a yellow dress as well.
- Dirty Old Man: Our protagonist the author Johannes Mørk, but you can hardly blame him. He does his best to play it down.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Johannes Mørk, the author and Eva´s father.
- Excuse Plot: One wonders. Was the entire point of this movie to show off the girls, exquisite Norwegian coastlines, and some nice guitar tunes to boot? There are hardly any conflicts in this movie at all unless you count on a brush-off between Marit and her mother, who shows up unexpectedly.
- Fanservice: The girls, but an honorary mention goes to Solfrid Heier (Lone) in a yellow bikini.
- Flat Character: You could argue that the three boys have little actual depth. The story centres around the author and the girls, all considered.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Lone (sanguine), Eva (Melancholic) and Marit (Choleric). That leaves Johannes Mørk as the phlegmatic one.
- Happily Married: Discussed. Eva, being the daughter of two estranged parents, is reluctant to tie the knot.
- Imagine Spot: The author has a couple during the course of the movie, first centering around his wife, later around Lone. From a Certain Point of View, one can consider the entire plotline to have happened inside his head (that means, he has been alone the entire summer and imagined the whole thing).
- May–December Romance: Mørk and Lone play with the idea of this, but nothing actually comes out of it.
- Nice Guy: the three boyfriends altogether.
- The Muse: Eva´s mother, who is mentioned as a constant inspiration for the novels written by Johannes. That is, until Lone shows up.
- Skinny Dipping: Could you imagine a movie like this without it?
- The Tease: Lone. The others, not so much.
- Totally Radical: It´s 1965, and the girls in question swing with the times.
