But one day, when out surfing with her friend, Bethany falls victim to a shark attack she is rushed to the hospital and has to have her arm amputated, leaving her surfing career in jeopardy.īethany slowly adjusts to life with one arm and quickly gets back in the water but it's difficult to surf one handed. Everyone agrees that she has a bright future in surfing ahead of her. SOUL SURFER is the inspiring true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a. When not surfing, she likes hanging out with her friends and flirting with guys, like any other teen her age.īethany also participates in surfing competitions, frequently winning the grand prize every time. to the max.Thirteen year old Bethany Hamilton loves to surf she comes from a family of surfers, so there is nothing more she likes doing then catching some waves, in Hawaii, where she lives. There IS an amazing true story at the heart of Soul Surfer - and unfortunately, it's drowned by waves of Hollywood cheese.
Nevertheless, it's a good movie for children and is a surprisingly effective Christian-themed film - just don't take your film critique crew to watch this.
The editing is sporadically all over the place, and the dialogue makes me shudder. The spaces in between are nothing more than fillers, and what dull fillers they are. The movie suffers from horrible pacing issues, mainly due to the fact that the incident that occurs, and the result afterwards are the only solid material "Soul Surfer" has for its narrative. Surprisingly, "Soul Surfer" as a Christian movie, manages to catch a couple of waves, but that's where it ends. Even the message was good-hearted, pure, and a relief, especially among a movie industry filled with dark and unsettling themes. There's a particular scene involving the Bethany, the main protagonist, that effectively agitates the audience's emotions, all without a word being said. It's not preachy or pretentious deep down, there's a lot of purity and heart injected into this movie. You'll be pleasantly welcomed by the B-movie feel "Soul Surfer" has.
Let me tell you, there are some horrifyingly, awful Christian movies out there. "What's up, Disney Channel?" As a Christian, I find myself cringing at the attempt to make an inspiring Christian-themed movie, but surprisingly, "Soul Surfer" as a Christian movie, wasn't THAT bad compared to the many other Christian movies. I found myself cringing a lot at the laughably and poorly written dialogue, the mediocre acting (Sorry Carrie Underwood, you're a devout Christian and an EXCELLENT musician, which is all very inspiring, but acting ain't your thing), and the poor execution in storytelling. I like how the RottenTomatoes consensus put it: "There's an amazing true story at the heart of Soul Surfer - and unfortunately, it's drowned by waves of Hollywood cheese." Yup, with material like this, it's hard to go wrong, but boy, it was freaking cheesy. Still, I'm a sucker for a true story, especially one so inspirational. I think some parts of her recovery were glossed over. He was shoved in a corner and forgotten about! I thought it was unnessary Hollywood drama, until I read an article were the real Bethany insists this part was true! The father didn't cross paths with her in the hallway like the movie shows, though. I found her story very motivational, although I didn't believe the scene where her father was having routine knee surgery on the day of the shark attack (and got pulled from the operating room so they could perform surgery on Bethany).
The shark bite amputated her left arm and she almost died from blood loss.Īs soon as the stitches were removed, Bethany returned to competitive surfing. The attack was quick and she claims she didn't even know what hit her. On October 31, 2003, 13 year old Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing off Kauaiâ's North Shore. I wanted to see this movie because remember reading about it in People Magazine many years ago.