Soul Surfer is the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who at 13 lost her left arm in a shark attack. With faith and the support of her friends and family Hamilton worked hard and pursued her dream to become a professional surfer. Based on Hamilton’s 2004 biography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board and interviews conducted by director Sean McNamara (Beyond the Break).

The film is shot on location among a few Hawaiian Islands and features the expected backdrops of beautiful waterfalls, sandy beaches, and lush greenery. McNamara offers up a decent look at surf culture, making the introduction to the film play out like a surf video, hinting occasionally at something ominous in the water. Your given a good set up here of family dynamics while integrating the stories faith and community aspects among said introduction. All it takes is this brief section of the film to give you a hold on investment for the story and the characters within.

Soul Surfer is rated PG for an intense accident sequence. This would be the films shark attack. Sadly there are some moments in the film that fail to capture the power of the rest of the film and this is one of them. The CGI effects for the shark attack seem a bit underdeveloped making the lightning fast attack seem surreal rather then realistic. Everything that follows should have created a rushed, panicked, and intense moment for this chapter of the Bethany Hamilton story but McNamara’s choice of music for this sequence is off putting. My thoughts were rectified by a murmur of voices behind and beside me who quietly made note that the music was strangely out of place. No doubt now that I have experienced this unexpected hiccup in the films soundtrack I’ll be less likely to notice it the next time I see this film and possibly find the intensity of this moment in the film how it was meant to be.

Casting for the film was pretty solid. AnnaSophia Robb is absolutely amazing in her role as Bethany Hamilton. She is able to deliver such a powerful performance that will leave hardly a dry eye in the theater. Dennis Quaid is as usual bordering fantastic. There are some scenes in the film that require, I don’t know, something else, and Quaid is only able to get us halfway there, but for the most part his chemistry with Robb is excellent. Helen Hunt surprisingly doesn’t have that large of a role. She is in a majority of the scenes but she never really registers for some reason. The only real quirk I had with casting had to have been Carrie Underwood, this being her film debut. Her performance is mostly wooden and that realization truly becomes apparent during a scene in which she and Robb meet up for the first time after the shark attack. The film has a lot to do with faith and Hamilton goes through a lot of doubting her own faith after her accident. Underwood plays Hamilton’s youth group leader at her church, who Hamilton turns to for answers. Robb is amazing in this sequence and in what should have been one of the most powerful scenes in the film is quickly shot down by Underwood’s less then stellar acting. Despite anything else the film is fantastic due to a great script, great direction, and AnnaSophia Robb’s performance as Bethany Hamilton.

Over all Soul Surfer is a must see film for several reasons. The biggest draw for me had to have been the way in which faith, family, tragedy, and triumph all manage to have a universal appeal to them. The film can be seen through the eyes of father, mother, daughter, son, sibling, friend, pretty much anyone. This alone is what pulls at your heart strings, makes you want to stand up and cheer, gives you that so often lacking rush of adrenaline great films can give you. I can also appreciate how faith is a huge part in this film, but not as a message kind of weaved into the fibers of the story for the sake of making this a film about faith, but rather a legitimate character in the film. I can remember as a teenager struggling with my own faith, often wondering why, if God loves us and we try so hard, bad things still happen to us? Even as an adult I always find it fascinating that when things don’t go as we plan them to somewhere down the line these drop outs equal out to some sort of experience that can be applied in some far greater scheme. It’s just life and weather or not you believe it’s God’s plan or just fate Soul Surfer manages to take these moments and place them throughout without ever really making them feel as if they are part of some agenda. In any case this has become my absolutely must see film of 2011 for now. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.

*Soul Surfer is a term coined in the 1960s, used to describe a surfer who surfs for the sheer pleasure of surfing. Although they may still enter in competitions, winning is not the soul surfer's main motive, since they scorn the commercialization of surfing. The term denotes a spirituality of surfing. As Brad Melekian put it in a 2005 article in Surfer magazine:

    “...to pursue surfing not just as an athletic endeavor or as a sunny day diversion, but to try to glean whatever lessons you can from the practice. It means being aware of your surroundings, and respectful of the people and places that you interact with. It means being patient, mindful, kind, compassionate, understanding, active, thoughtful, faithful, hopeful, gracious, disciplined and…good.”