Soul Surfer

An earnest fact-based movie that nearly drowns in good intentions, director Sean McNamara's Soul Surfer centers on a beautiful young surfer who loses her left arm in a shark attack but pluckily continues in her chosen sport. AnnaSophia Robb stars as Bethany Hamilton, a Hawaiian junior surfing star so talented and pretty that she's tapped for a modeling gig. But the shark encounter changes her life, and the remainder of the film focuses on how she deals with the loss. Bolstered by her faith, Bethany goes off with a church group to assist victims of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, where she learns that others are suffering far more than her, and returns newly determined to take to the waves again despite the physical difficulties. Although she doesn't win the competition she enters (she nevertheless has an amazing run), her personal victory inspires others who've suffered similar injuries. While Robb is an engaging heroine, the script unfortunately embraces every relevant cliché (and singer Carrie Underwood is entirely too intense as a youth organizer at the family's congregation). Granted, the Hawaiian locations are lovely, and the surfing sequences are nicely shot, but Soul Surfer is ultimately a cloying, shallow treatment of a remarkable story. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the “Heart of a Soul Surfer” production featurette (31 min.), a “making-of” featurette (13 min.), and the behind-the-scenes segments “Surfing for the Screen” (6 min.), “Bethany Hamilton on Professional Surfing” (5 min.), and “Becoming Bethany” (4 min.), as well as deleted scenes (4 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus DVD copy of the film, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an uneven film.] (F. Swietek)