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The 5 Best Song from Aquamarine

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Aquamarine

Review by David Bjerre

Rating

Designations & Trivia

Genre: Fancy Free

Keywords:
Best Friends Forever, First Love, Forced marriage

Did you know that...
Emma Roberts and Sara Paxton are both featured on the film's soundtrack. Ironically Jojo, perhaps best known as a singer, isn't.

THE STORY

Best friends Claire and Haley have been inseparable the entire summer, roaming the beaches of a little town called Baybridge. They spend their days swooning over Raymond the lifeguard, whom they both plan to marry - as soon as he realizes they exist. But now the girls only have five days left together. Haley's mother, a renowned marine biologist, has received a grant to study in Australia, so she has to move there, and Haley has no choice but to come with her. How will Claire manage to face eight grade all by herself and how will Haley live without her best friend? The girls pray to the gods of thunder, to find a way to keep Haley in town.

That same night a giant storm hits Baybridge and the next morning, among debris that has washed up, Claire and Haley make a shocking discovery: A real live mermaid is now swimming around in their pool! The girls quickly befriend this mythical creature. They learn that the mermaid, called Aquamarine, has but three days to prove to her father that there is such a thing as love, or she will have to go back and marry a man she doesn't even like! When the girls realize that helping a mermaid will grant them a wish, they see an opportunity stay together and so they decide to give up Raymond and help Aquamarine fall in love with him.

(By the way, if you're worried about that whole big giant fish tail thing, it turns out that mermaids can "grow" a pair of legs, but they can only use them while the sun is up, and if they get water on them, the tail instantly grows back.)

There's one big problem: Aquamarine has the social skills of a 7-year old. Luckily Claire and Haley are experts when it comes to boys and love, though the bulk of their knowledge comes from glittery girlie magazines. Still, they face some tough odds, not to mention fierce competition from Cecilia, queen bitch of the beach, who's had her eye on Raymond for some time. It'll take nothing less than a miracle to get Raymond to say "I Love you" in just three days. Can the girls accomplish this impossible task, so they can stay together?

REVIEW

Watching two teen girls, who have only read about love and boys, guide the even more clueless mermaid through her first crush is an unmitigated treat. In fact "Aquamarine" is a lot more fun than it should be. This is, in no small way, thanks to Emma Roberts and Joanna "JoJo" Levesque who bravely carry the entire film on their shoulders. The girls tumble around like a pair of laughing, giggling chipmunks and they are simply adorable.

The brilliant thing about "Aquamarine" is that we get to experience first love as seen through the eyes of a couple of 13-year old girls. It would have been icky if they had lived through the experience themselves, but because they watch from the sidelines, forced to live vicariously through their new-found friend, the situation is reduced to its creamy nougat center, and all the real-life relationship politics and the sexual tension vaporize and float away on a pink fluffy cloud. And you know what? That's okay.

Sometimes it's nice to see a film so pure and insistently innocent. The film's dogma even reaches all the way to the costume design. I would have been uncomfortable watching these two young girls strutting around in skimpy bikinis, but the writers have taken this into account by making the girls insecure about their developing bodies. Hence they mostly wear oversized T-shirts that don't reveal anything. And whenever Aquamarine dons her birthday suit, her hair mysteriously clings to her body in some very strategic places. In other words, this is good clean family fun.

The closest thing we get to any hint of sexual awareness is the scene where Aquamarine manages to lure Haley's pet fish out of its hiding place, prompting Claire to ask sheepishly "Can you also make boobs come out of hiding?"

Sidebar: The film is actually full of clever lines such as the one above. In one scene Claire is saved by Raymond, whereupon Haley blurts out: "Raymond jumped into the water to save you, with his actual biceps!" and when Aquamarine is surprised, she yells: "You scared the salt out of me!" Oh, and get this, when her father calls she must answer her "shell-phone"... geddit?

Naturally the soundtrack is full of catchy summer-like tunes. Classics like "Smile" by Vitamin C or "Summertime Guys" by Nikki Cleary, but also a few I hadn't heard before, like "One Original Thing" by Cheyenne Kimball or "Strike" by Nikki Flores. The soundtrack is definitely worth checking out on its own merit.

WRAP-UP

Even though "Aquamarine" is a pink and fluffy creation, it's not entirely without a message. It introduces some utterly simple but important life lessons that you can never learn too early: "Don't be afraid of life" and "love is difficult, but worth it" and that sort of thing. The basics really, nothing more complicated than that. It's a charming, funny and strangely addictive film. The epitome of a perfect "dear diary" entry.