“Love is the closest thing we have to magic” is the kind of iconic one-liner that can make you tear up with nostalgic recognition if you were a teenager in 2006 when Aquamarine was released. It’s the culmination of a speech Hailey (Joanna ‘JoJo’ Levesque) makes to cheer up her despairing mermaid friend, who is just about ready to give up on finding love. The scene captures the quintessence of director Elizabeth Allen’s feature debut: an earnest, confessional tone and a cast wearing its heart on its sleeve.
Based on Alice Hoffman’s novella of the same name and scripted by John Quaintance and Jessica Bendinger (Bring It On), Aquamarine begins with two best friends, Hailey and Claire (Emma Roberts), whose blissful summer of preteen glory is coming to an end. At least the chapter that they share in the fictional town of Baybridge, Florida, as Hailey’s mother—a successful marine biologist—has just won a grant for research in Australia. On a stormy night, the girls pray for a miracle, asking the hurricane gods to intervene.
Salvation comes in the shape of a sassy mermaid with long, blonde hair, a magnificent fish tail and a weakness for gummy worms. Named after the precious stone, Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) is the epitome of magic: she can conjure waves and converse with sea animals, but what she really yearns for is love. “We don’t have it where I’m from,” she says, “and if I don’t find it in three days, I’m sunk.” Her eyes arbitrarily land on Raymond (Jake McDorman), the handsome, good-mannered lifeguard superstar, and she claims him, to the girls’ dismay. At that moment, it’s clear that even if Aqua will be the one learning new skills—such as walking, crying and human interaction—it’s not her coming-of-age story that the film serves. Helping the mermaid grants them a wish (to stay together in Florida), but it demands a sacrifice.
Hailey and Claire are self-proclaimed “Ray-ologists”, to quote Jules. His favorite drink? Dr. Pepper. Favorite food? Oranges. Sometimes, a film’s love interest is simply a well-mannered surfer guy who listens to ‘Island in the Sun’ by Weezer, or, as Caroline puts it, “Ray’s job is Beach.” Raymond could be seen as the story’s gravitational force, as everyone orbits him—including Aqua’s rival, Cecilia Banks (Arielle Kebbel), in her pink convertible—but the most interesting thing about him is the reactions he elicits. Giggly and flustered, Roberts and Levesque channel the feeling of a teen crush so effortlessly in their expressive performances. Pointeful paints it perfectly: “This movie is so embarrassing in the way that twelve–to-fourteen-year-old girls are embarrassing and it makes me feel so joyful and grateful that I was once so young, embarrassing and earnest.”
