The obvious jokey double-feature comparison is fellow recent arm-loss big screen adaptation 127 Hours, but Soul Surfer is less stylistically adventurous and far more streamlined and built for conventional, heartland uplift than Danny Boyle’s Oscar-nominated film. A feel-good movie of genial deification, it tells the remarkable true story of Bethany Hamilton, who in 2003 lost a limb to a shark bite.
AnnaSophia Robb stars as the teenage Bethany, a Hawaiian surfing prodigy whose doting parents (Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt) home-school she and her siblings, the better to allow them time to also catch waves. After an accident claims her left arm almost all the way up to her shoulder, Bethany faces an uphill climb back toward competitive surfing with aplomb beyond her years.
There is something of a dearth of dramatic conflict here, since Soul
Surfer basically just amounts to a gorgeous, sun-toned and by all accounts extraordinarily well-adjusted family coping with an admittedly terrible tragedy and coming (further) together. There’s a lot of rah-rah moralizing and Christianist parallelism herein, not all of which connects. (An incredible seven screenwriters share story credit, from the adaptation of a book by three others.) But the performances are solid, appealing and wholly invested in across the board, and John Leonetti’s you-are-there cinematography is gorgeous, making for an engaging albeit predictable emotional ride that should play especially well in Red State rural and suburban areas. (TriStar/Film District, PG, 106 minutes)
Apparently I am in a Red State area. And it is fantastic. Not everyone hopes to go to a movie – especially a movie with their children – hoping to feel reality. In fact, I was thrilled to find that each of my children found a different moral to the story. All in all I would have to say, “Rah-Rah!” to “Rah-rah moralizing.” Try going again and sit in an uncomfortable chair and eat some burnt popcorn. You may enjoy it more with a touch of reality.
Thanks, Karen for your comment. I took three of my girls yesterday also, and we really enjoyed. I was actually tearing up through most of it. It is great to have a film you can enjoy, and that upholds Christian values. Those who are patronizing towards us do seem to begrudge us even those films, and can’t seem to resist snide comments. That being said it was non-cringe worthy trip to the movies for once. And we could discuss it in a positive manner, instead of talking about what was wrong with the film (morally speaking).
Brent Simon is just a bitter fucking commie.
These cock sucking liberal always managing to thumb their nose at Middle America, and they wonder why we want liberals and commie fuckers like him dead.
I’d beat you over the fucking head with a hammer so hard your skull would explode, you snarky little elitist liberal fuck.
Here’s to hoping someone murders you in the near future.
Hate much?! Wow, lol. Chill out, dude, it was an essentially positive review actually — just pointing out not for all tastes.