Life’s a beach for young Florida teens Claire (Emma Roberts) and Hailey (Joanna Levesque), until their routine of guy gossip and girlie bonding is interrupted with, well, a splash. Washed-up teen mermaid Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) may be beautiful, but she doesn’t know the meaning of love, so Claire and Hailey must school her in the art of flirtation (luckily she sprouts legs out of water). Cue more guy gossip and girlie bonding, but this low-budget fishy fantasy isn’t quite as superficial as it sounds: there’s a touching sense of innocence here.
The performances, CGI and sound synching are all variable — sometimes painful — yet with its tales of crushes, makeovers and female friendship, this is so relentlessly girlie it’ll be hard for young girls not to be won over. Shame we don’t have time to go into the lesbian subtext...