Soul Surfer

This weekend I finally had the chance to go see the movie, Soul Surfer. For those of you who havent heard of this film, it is about a professional surfer named Bethany Hamilton. Bethany has an amazing story I am sure you heard about. When she was 13, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing off Kauai’s North Shore. The attack left Bethany with a severed left arm. Miraculously, just one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water to continue pursuing her goal to become a professional surfer. This film stars Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as Bethany's parents, Carrie Underwood as the youth minister and AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany. I loved this movie. I thought Robb's performance of Hamilton was amazing. She has such depth as an actor and I sincerely felt for her and her situation. With an amazingly upbeat attitude you cant help but want to be more like her. One of my favorite lines from the movie was given by Carrie Underwood. It takes place after the shark attack and the youth group and gone to Thailand to help after the tsunami. Bethany is talking to a survivor and gets emotional hearing about their ordeal and runs away to get her composure. Carrie approaches her and tells her not to be ashamed of compassion. It can move people to do amazing things. It made me feel alot better about crying during the movie. :) I would recommend this movie to everyone. The cinematography is amazing, the acting (AnnaSophia Robb especially) is great. The story is inspirational and lifts the soul.

One disclaimer though. . . For the most part, the film would be fine for younger kids, but the actual shark attack might be frightening. One moment Hamilton is just lying on her board, laughing with her friend, and the next moment her arm is gone and the water is red with her blood.

I gotta admit, that as an audience member, even though you know what is going to happen, it still makes your heart drop a bit when you see a massive shark come out of the water right next to Hamilton. Scared me, thats for sure. I am pretty sure I dreamt about sharks that night too... But I would DEFINITELY give this movie 5 stars, two thumbs up, whatever it takes to get you to go see it! :)

The above picture is of AnnaSophia Robb and Bethany Hamilton.