Eye of the Dolphin

Name: Eye of the Dolphin
Director: Michael D. Sellers
Released: 2007

Michael D. Sellers

2007

Synopsis

Alyssa is a troubled 14-year old, suspended from school a year after her mother has drowned. Her grandmother Lucy, at wit's end, decides to take Alyssa to her father, James, whom Alyssa thought was dead for years. He studies dolphin communication at Smith's Point, on the Grand Bahama Island. James has not known of Alyssa's existence and is clueless about parenthood. The women arrive at the same time that James may lose his research operation to a tourist attraction. Father, daughter, dolphins, and town are on a collision course. Alyssa and James get encouragement from James's girlfriend and her father. It's the dolphins who can teach, and Alyssa who discovers how to listen.

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Recommendations

67
Austin Chronicle
Eye of the Dolphin is much better than most films of this sort, and if it helps a generation of young girls want to grow up to swim with live dolphins rather than groom My Little Ponys, that's certainly not a bad thing at all.
63
ReelViews
There's real heart to be found in the story but it comes along with borderline saccharine sentimentality, a too facile ending, and clean outcomes that aren't earned.
50
Chicago Tribune
Young audiences will enjoy her journey from surly to empowered, and as countless visitors to Brookfield Zoo can attest, there's nothing like watching dolphins. So a star for Schroeder and a star for the title players.
50
Los Angeles Times
Overly earnest and roughly constructed, the film is bearable largely thanks to the performance as the daughter by Carly Schroeder, recently seen in the girls' soccer pic, "Gracie."
50
Variety
There's a pleasantly dreamy quality to much of Eye of the Dolphin, and that goes a long way toward enabling audiences to ignore the formulaic plot and enjoy the laid-back charms of this innocuous indie.