According to the new film “Soul Surfer,” Bethany Hamilton was a born surfer. Her parents were both diehard surfers so it seemed natural when she started surfing herself. As a teenager, her potential seemed limitless until a shark attack cost her an arm and put her dreams in jeopardy. ”Soul Surfer” tells the true story of how Bethany overcame that attack with the help of her family, her optimism and an unwavering faith in God.

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Bethany (Anna Sophia Robb) begins the story as a young surfer aiming to win local competitions against her rival, Malina Birch (Sonya Balmores). The plot starts out slow as it introduces Bethany’s family, who regularly attend Church together and who love to spend time riding the waves. Along with her two brothers, the family includes Bethany’s mother Cheri (Helen Hunt) and her father Tom (Dennis Quaid). After a few surfing scenes that feel like false alarms for what’s to come, Bethany is attacked by a shark while out surfing with her friends. The shark bites off one of her arms and leaves her questioning her surfing career.

The scenes surrounding the shark attack are some of the weakest scenes in the story. Before the attack, the surfing scenes are directed in anticipation of the big attack. Like in “Jaws,”  there are several shots of Bethany surfing while something seemingly lurks underneath the water. These seem out of place in a story that should be more focused on Bethany’s recovery, not on the attack itself. When the shark finally attacks, it’s anti-climactic. The story continues to stumble right after the attack. The director doesn’t seem to know where the camera should be and has it bouncing around and then cutting to close-ups of the actors as they bring Bethany to safety. After that, the camera thankfully slows down and lets the story unfold. 

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There’s nothing at all in the trailer to indicate the faith elements that are obviously a very big part of the true story of Bethany Hamilton — a young surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack and through the love of her parents, her Christian faith, and an incredible amount of determination, miraculously returned to tournament surfing. Instead, the marketing’s aimed directly at teens and positioned as a coming of age/overcoming obstacles/feel good film. Nothing wrong with that. As long as the film itself is true to the faith elements (from what I’ve read, it is), this is probably a wise move. People already aware of the story will show up, so why categorize your product as a “Christian film” if it’s so much more?

This is how it used to be, anyway, before Hollywood grew so openly hostile to Christianity. Hollywood always uses “reflecting reality” as an excuse for its coarseness, but won’t do so to reflect the reality of how the Christian faith is a central component in the lives of most Americans. Our faith is as natural a part of who we are as our work and family and secular lives, so there’s no reason to, for lack of a better term, “ghetto-ize” this kind of story as Christian.

In the real world, this is a universal story, no?

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The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman:

“I have always been interested in what I call actor-speak – and when I say “interested”, I mean “intrigued in the way you might be by a man talking to himself, without having any desire to go over and engage him in conversation”. However, while I continue to march past muttering men on park benches, I am, thanks to my job, an unwitting expert on actor-speak, having spent many hours of my life listening to actors bang on about their “love of the craft” and “the thing about [insert name of director] – he takes you on an emotional journey”.

“Some may call this argument prejudicial, but those who do have never spent a morning with Helen Hunt, listening to her expound on her skills. This has nothing to do with lack of respect for actors; just a lack of respect for the language they learn – perhaps at acting school – to describe what they do.

“The New Yorker event sounded promising: its panel of pleasing scene-stealers included John Turturro and Joan Cusack. But when – just 10 minutes in – panel member and actor Richard Kind (you’ll know him, look him up), said actors do theatre “to nourish themselves”, I knew I’d made a grave tactical error. The verb “nourish” should only be used in a culinary context, and even then with restraint. (more…)