I’m a sucker for films with great surfing footage, let alone wacky ’70s hairstyles. But this overlong, cliché-infested Aussie period drama tested my patience.

Loosely inspired by the rise of brands like Quiksilver, it depicts how a pair of brothers (Myles Pollard and Xavier Samuel) break into the surf gear business with the help of their mom (Robyn Malcolm) despite interference from a biker drug lord (Steve Bastoni) whom the younger brother falls in with.

Choppily directed in TV style by Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott, the handsomely shot “Drift” also benefits from the presence of Sam Worthington (best known in the States for “Avatar’’) as a filmmaker and the lovely Lesley-Ann Brandt, who nicely fills out an American neoprene surfing costume the brothers copy.