"Eye of the Dolphin" B-

Audience: 14 and up
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some substance abuse involving a young teen
Profanity: Brief language
Nudity/Sex Mild references, implied nudity
Alcohol/Drugs: Teen drug use, smoking, and drinking, adult character gets drunk
Violence/Scariness: Tense emotional confrontations, references to sad deaths
Diversity Issues: Diverse good guys and bad guys; a strength of the movie is the portrayal of a committed inter-racial friendships and a romantic relationship

A father and daughter both have to remove their earphones to learn how to communicate with each other in this earnest but uneven story with dolphins set in the wish-you-were-here-postcard-pretty Bahamas.

Alyssa (Carly Schroeder) is an angry 14-year-old who has been living with her grandmother Lucy ("The Graduate's" Katherine Ross) since the death of her mother. When she gets into trouble at school, Lucy decides to send Alyssa to her father. But first, she has to tell Alyssa that the father she had always been told was dead is alive and in the Bahamas, studying dolphins by listening to the way they "talk" to each other. And Lucy also has to tell Alyssa's father that not only does he have a daughter, but she is coming to live with him.

Dr. James Hawk (Adrian Dunbar) is not happy about anything that interrupts his research on dolphin communication. When it comes to other humans, whether Alyssa, his live-in girlfriend, Tamika (Christine Adams), or the people who want to turn his research center into a profitable tourist attraction, his own communication skills are not very strong. After the dolphins grab her iPod, Alyssa begins to tune into what is going on around her. And when James realizes that in order to help both Alyssa and the dolphins he will have to do better in talking to human beings, he learns that he likes being a father very much.

The strongest connection here is not between Alyssa and the dolphins or her father but with Tamika, and the quiet interaction between the very appealing Schroeder and Adams is the best part of the film. While it is careful to have both natives and newcomers on both sides of the dispute, the portrayal of the locals teeters toward condescending colonialism. This is in part because of the contrast between the professionals in the lead roles and the amateurs from the community who appear in two town meeting scenes so they can be swayed one way and then the other about the future of the dolphins. Most troubling is the disconnect in tone between the portrayal of the girl's heart being touched by the dolphins, which seems directed at a younger audience, and the scenes of Alyssa smoking a joint and James getting drunk, which are for more mature viewers. For all its good intentions, this film is unsteady and amateurish, with its own problems getting its message across.

Parents should know that this movie includes some risky and boundary-testing teenage behavior. Alyssa smokes a cigarette and a joint and drinks alcohol. James gets drunk at a party. It also includes some sexual references, brief implied nudity, and brief strong language. Diverse characters are both good and bad guys and a strength of the movie is the portrayal of a committed inter-racial couple.

Families who see this movie should talk about how communities have some sort of test (often implied) for newcomers who want to be accepted. What does someone from outside the Bahamas have to do to be considered a part of the community? What kinds of standards or tests are there in your communities? What made the dolphins so important to Alyssa? To her father?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Free Willy and Fly Away Home. The dolphins are named after one of greatest on- and off-screen romantic couple of all time, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Families might enjoy some of their movies together, including To Have and Have Not and Key Largo.