Review: Eye of the Dolphin – 2 Buckets (2007 WordPress edition)

More than any other emotion, Eye of the Dolphin made me feel anger. This was not because of the film’s content—it’s a pretty inoffensive motion picture all around—but because of its exploitation of a great lead performance. As the film’s protagonist, troubled-teen Alyssa, Carly Schroeder is a revelation. She hits all of the right notes as a rebellious girl who flounders through high school after the loss of her mother, only to be shocked when she is one day informed by her grandmother that her long-lost father isn’t dead, as she had been told for all her life. The rest of the movie, however, doesn’t measure up to the quality of Schroeder’s work: it’s dull, formulaic, and lacking in visual style. The experience feels nearly ironic because of this sad truth; the out-of-place greatness of the performance lends itself more to the viewer’s frustration than it does their admiration. Even when Alyssa and Grandma travel to the Bahamas, where her dad is a dolphin researcher, the movie never really finds its rhythm.  Had Eye of the Dolphin been more effective on the whole, critics would be comparing Schroeder’s work to Keisha Castle-Hughes’ Oscar-nominated turn in 2002’sWhale Rider. As it is, the movie is merely a tired entry in a tired genre with a somewhat-redeeming lead performance.

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Eye of the Dolphin (2007, USA). Produced by Donald A. Barton, Trent Broin, Richard Goulding, Eric Gozlan, Peter Graham, Steven Hays, Jady Herrmann, Doug Jewell, Susan Johnson, Robert Keskemety, Mark Linthicum, Tre Lovell, Anthony Millan, Stuart Miller, Daniel Morabito, Jacob Moseler, Peer J. Oppenheimer, John Remark, Joe Roth, Michael D. Sellers, Amy Sommer, Anthony Vlastas, Pamela Vlastas, and Matthew Wellman. Directed by Michael D. Sellers. Written for the screen by Michael D. Sellers and Wendell Morris. Starring Carly Schroeder, Adrian Dunbar, George Harris, Katharine Ross, Christine Adams, Jane Lynch, and Andrea Bowen. Distributed by Monterey Media. Rated PG-13, with a running time of 100 minutes.