Film Reviews

Aquamarine

• Rating:
• Director: Elizabeth Allen
• Starring: Emma Roberts
• Details: US, 104mins, PG.

Two days before she is forced to move away from her seaside resort, twelve-year-old Hailey (Levesque) and her best friend Claire (Roberts) intend on spending it trying to land hunky lifeguard Raymond (McDorman).One night, a storm washes ashore the beautiful mermaid Aquamarine (Paxton) and the three 'girls' strike up friendship. However, on first sight of Raymond, the socially naive Aquamarine falls in love with him and the girls make a deal to help her woo Raymond in exchange for helping Hailey stay in town.
If you're a girl aged between eight and eight and a quarter, Aquamarine is your Citizen Kane. Unashamedly aimed at the tweeny market, Elizabeth Allen's movie applies the formula that little girls will lap up - smart girls who can't get the good-looking boy to notice them, sassy punk-pop music over shopping montages, beautiful but bitchy rich girls that get their comeuppance in some clothes related disaster, the countless squealing of 'Oh, my God', the super hot boy who has a penchant for taking his shirt off - Aquamarine has it all. Although it maybe a lot of harmless fun for the younger viewers, you have to question what is it teaching prepubescent girls: landing a guy, looking beautiful, getting one up on another girl and finding the answers to everything you need in glossy magazines will be the height of your ambition. Even though Aquamarine follows the rules of all the other tweeny movies, it does have one very important difference. The hunk is not called Corey.

Review by Gavin Burke