Aquamarine

It's the end of summer and Claire (Roberts) and Hailey (JoJo) have a major problem. In just five days, Hailey's family is moving halfway around the world! These girls need a major miracle, and they get one in the form of Aquamarine, a beautiful mermaid who washes ashore in a late summer storm. Sweet but clueless to the ways of romance, she offers to grant the girls one wish if they help her find the boy of her dreams. But when they attempt to reel in the cute local lifeguard, the result is something none of them expect and they discover that sometimes what you wish for isn't what you really want after all!

The sun, the sand, and a sweet sassy mermaid--what more could any young girl want from summer? Claire (Emma Roberts, Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills) and Hailey (JoJo, R.V.) go giddy at the sight of hunky lifeguard Raymond (Jake McDorman). When a storm washes a mermaid named Aquamarine (Sara Paxton, Sleepover) into a swimming pool, Claire and Hailey agree to help her find love--even if it's with Raymond--because Aquamarine will grant them a wish that will keep Hailey from having to move away to Australia. Parents of preteen girls may approach Aquamarine with dread, but the movie's formulaic beginnings are given a heartening twist; the movie starts by wallowing in Cosmogirl-fueled boy-craziness, but finishes as an unexpectedly touching paean to friendship (with some surprisingly down-to-earth suggestions about romance). Roberts and JoJo are a charming duo, eager to be older than they are, but in the end growing up no faster than they need to. Also featuring Bruce Spence, known to some viewers as the Gyro Captain from The Road Warrior and to others as the voice of a shark in Finding Nemo. --Bret Fetzer