tek's rating: ¼

Aquamarine (PG)
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This came out in 2006, but I didn't see it until 2024. I liked it a bit more than I expected to.

So, there are these two best friends, Claire (Emma Roberts) and Hailey (JoJo Levesque), who live in Florida. They're both very upset because in a few days, Hailey and her mother are going to be moving to Australia. They're both also crushing hard on a lifeguard named Raymond. And they're scared of an old guy named Leonard. One night there's a big storm, and a mermaid named Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) gets swept from the ocean into a pool, where Claire discovers her the next morning. Aqua had swum away from home because her father wants her to marry a merman she doesn't like. Apparently, merfolk don't have love, but Aqua had seen a loving human couple once, and wants to find it for herself. If she can prove to her father that love exists, he'll let her out of the arranged marriage. When she sees Raymond, she immediately decides she wants him to love her, so Claire and Hailey help her get closer to Raymond over the next few days. In exchange, Aqua promises to give them a wish, and they want to use it to prevent Hailey from having to move away. Anyway, things are a bit complicated because Aqua's tail transforms into legs, but she can't get them wet or they'll turn back into a tail. Her tail also returns every day at sunset. There's also a group of mean girls led by a girl named Cecilia, who wants Raymond for herself.

I don't think there's much else I could say without getting into spoilers. But I like how the Aqua/Raymond situation worked out in the end. And how Aqua's situation with her father worked out (which kind of reminded me of Frozen). And how Hailey's situation worked out. I think in these ways, the movie turned out to be a bit more mature and realistic than I would have expected. Oh, and it also turns out that Leonard isn't scary, after all, which was nice. (Though I did like one joke about him, when one of the girls said "He knows what you did last summer". Anyway, that's all I can think to say, I guess. Definitely not a great movie, but not bad.


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