Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
103 mins
Basically Splash for pre-teen girls, this is a surprisingly enjoyable piece of fluff, lifted by appealing performances and a resonant theme about the importance of friendship.
What's it all about?
Set in Florida, the film stars Emma Roberts and JoJo Levesque as 14 year old best buddies Claire and Hailey, who find a teenaged mermaid named Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) in their swimming pool after a tropical storm. Aquamarine has just three days to prove to her father that true love really exists, or else she has to submit to an underwater arranged marriage, so the girls agree to help her.
However, things get complicated when Aquamarine sets her sights on the girls' secret crush, Raymond (Jake McDorman) and arouses the suspicion of local mean girl Cecilia (Arielle Kebbel), who is forced to deliver the line, There's something fishy about that girl.
The Good
The performances are charming, particularly JoJo Levesque, who is rapidly becoming the new Lindsay Lohan (only in a good way).
Meanwhile, blonde and bubbly Sara Paxton displays the sort of comic timing that suggests Cameron Diaz should watch her back, while Arielle Kebbel gets good mileage out of the teen bitch role.
The plot may be utterly predictable, but the film makes up for it with some nice observations about teen culture and some amusingly cheesy gags (eg Aquamarine's shellphone). The script displays a sense of fun too, giving Aquamarine her own salty language and using swearwords like Bullshark! and That… barnacle!
The Bad
The CGI mermaid effects are a bit rubbish, but one suspects the film's target audience won't mind that too much. Maybe they'll even rush to buy the soundtrack album too, even though, to the rest of us it sounds like a collection of bland studiopop tracks assembled by the Marketing department.
Worth seeing?
It's sweet, charming and has its moments, but it's basically aimed squarely at pre-teen girls. Enjoyable enough though, if you like that sort of thing.