"Aquamarine": Oh-my-Gawd, there's a mermaid in the pool!
"Aquamarine" presents its young audience with a charming quandary: What's a girl to do when she finds a mermaid in her beach-club swimming pool? The sea maiden (Sara Paxton), whose name is Aquamarine, looks like a supermodel, sports cute blue highlights in her long blond hair (which, as luck and a PG rating would have it, just happens to cover her bare chest) and has a nice mastery of sarcasm. She's a reality show waiting to happen, and the 13-year-old pals who find her, Claire (Emma Roberts) and Hailey (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque), stare at her in fascination. Summer vacation just got a lot more exciting.
Based on a short story of the same name by Alice Hoffman ("Practical Magic"), this sparkly fairy tale won't hold much interest for those outside the tween-girl demographic. Its screenplay too often seems to be treading water, and the directing (by first-timer Elizabeth Allen) is undistinguished, relying too often on squeals from the ever-excitable Claire and Hailey for drama. But it takes a surprising turn in its final act, as the girls learn a lesson about friendship and love. As one of the characters tells us, love is the closest thing we have to magic — and that's a sweet message for any age.
"Aquamarine," with Emma Roberts, Joanna "JoJo" Levesque, Sara Paxton, Jake McDorman, Arielle Kebbel. Directed by Elizabeth Allen, from a screenplay by John Quaintance and Jessica Bendinger, based on a short story by Alice Hoffman. 103 minutes. Rated PG for mild language and sensuality. Several theaters.
Grown-up girls may find Claire and Hailey familiar and poignant, as they spend their 13-year-old summer wanting desperately to be older. (They're still little girls at heart, though, and perfectly innocent — this movie's aimed squarely at preteens.) They study magazines, looking for advice that will make Raymond (Jake McDorman), the adorable lifeguard at the beach, notice them. As they school Aquamarine, a tad cluelessly, on how to catch a boy's eye, we learn techniques like "the laugh and pass" (which seems to work but isn't anywhere near as good as Elle Woods' "bend and snap" in "Legally Blonde").
Paxton brings a funny screechiness to her character, and Roberts (Julia's niece, proving that big eyes run in the family) and Levesque are alternately earnest and giggly as needed. Girls enchanted by mermaids will enjoy the details: starfish earrings that whisper compliments to the wearer; fingernail polish that changes like mood rings; shells that act as cellphones to the sea.
"Aquamarine" isn't good enough to be a teen classic, but its audience will leave the theater happy — and while that's not quite as rare as mermaids, it's still something to celebrate.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com