MOVIE OF THE WEEK #2 (4/8/11): SOUL SURFER
Credit: Mario Perez. Courtesy of FilmDistrict and TriStar. All Rights Reserved.
KEY CAST MEMBERS: AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Carrie Underwood, Helen Hunt, Kevin Sorbo, Craig T. Nelson, Lorraine Nicholson, Ross Thomas, Chris Brochu, Jeremy Sumpter, Cody Gomes and Sonya Balmores
WRITER: Sean McNamara, Deborah & Douglas Schwartz
DIRECTOR: Sean McNamara
WEB SITE: www.soulsurferthemovie.com/
THE PLOT: Based on the true life story as detailed in the book Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, Soul Surfer stars AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany Hamilton. A happy-go-lucky teen living in Hawaii who enjoys going to church and talking with friend/mission trip organizer Sarah Hill (Carrie Underwood), Bethany's passion in life is surfing. Raised by her hippie-esque parents (Dennis Quad and Helen Hunt), Bethany spends the majority (if not all) of her free time surfing the waves as she and her best friend Elana (Lorraine Nicholson) hope to turn pro one day.
Then, one day while hanging out with Elana and her dad (Kevin Sorbo), Bethany's life is changed forever when a shark comes out of nowhere and completely bites off her left arm just below her armpit. While her family and friends are devastated, Bethany is determined as ever to live life as she did before her injury, which means one thing and one thing only: Getting back up on her surfboard and living her dream of becoming a professional surfer.
The journey to getting back up on her board, however, may just end up changing her life more than the shark's bite ever could ...
THE TAKE: If you decide to go see Soul Surfer, you should do yourself a favor and stick around to the closing credits. It's not because there's some big Iron Man style reveal or some M. Night Shymalan-style twist ending or anything, but because the end credits feature video and photos of the real Bethany Hamilton and her family, which are more interesting, informative and inspiring than the actual movie is itself.
Here's the quick scoop on Soul Surfer: It feels like a made-for-TV movie that just so happened to get released onto the big screen. While the surfing shots are extremely well done (especially at the end of the film), everything just feels a bit, well, cookie-cutter. The rival surfer (Sonya Balmores) is straight out of a Bring it On sequel, the dialogue is very 'You can do it if you believe you can do it" unmemorable and everyone - EVERYONE! - in the movie is pretty. (That normally wouldn't be such an issue until you see what the real people look like during the credits). C'mon Hollywood - give us real, not easy to digest!
While Robb does a decent job as Hamilton, the rest of the cast just isn't compelling. Their reactions are too much 'Oh no!' or 'Oh yay!' at times to draw you in, although Underwood may actually do the best job by being offensively unoffensive. (If you see the movie, that'll make more sense.) It's like iCarly if she had an arm bitten off by a shark ... Although I doubt Nickelodeon would air that episode. Also, Hamilton and her family are people of faith, so be prepared to deal with your own issues if you haven't been to church since the last time you went to a friend's wedding.
PARTING SHOT: While the film detailing it isn't remarkable, Hamilton herself is - and that's what keeps Soul Surfer from wiping out.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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