| Review:
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For those looking for a family film that avoids the
cuteness that spoils so many of the child and animal genre
films director Charles Martin Smith has just the ticket.
Similar to, but better than Free Willy, this film is based
on a true story about the combined efforts of adults and
children to rehabilitate a tailless dolphin.***
Eleven-year-old Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) is a Floridian
very depressed since his father abandoned the family. Not
even his older cousin Kyle (Austin Stowell), a high school
champion swimmer to whom he is devoted, can pull him permanently
out of his slump—and soon Kyle is deployed by the Army and
sent overseas. Then one day Kyle is at the beach and sees
a dolphin entangled in the net of a crab trap. As the boy
kneels beside the animal a bond forms between them. Later
Sawyer goes to the Clearwater Marine Hospital where the
dolphin has been taken and placed in the care of marine
biologist Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick, Jr.). The doctor
at first orders what he considers to be a young nuisance
to leave, but when the boy sneaks back in, the doctor’s
daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff), about the same age as
Sawyer, lets him come in. She sees what a close bond has
developed between the two, and soon the good doctor does
also. Sawyer is on hand when Dr. Haskett has to amputate
Winter’s (as they name the dolphin) because of a bad infection.
After he recovers, Winter manages to swim by wiggling his
body, but this would not be enough to permit him to survive
in the wild. Indeed, the unnatural action will eventually
damage Winter’s spine. And so the team works long hours
trying to create an artificial tail for Winter.***
Matters for Sawyer take a bad turn when Kyle comes
back so badly injured that he is wheelchair bound. He becomes
as despondent as Sawyer once was, even telling his cousin
to go away and leave him alone. And yet it is through him
that Sawyer meets Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman)
at the V.A. hospital. An expert in prosthetics, Dr. McCarthy
agrees to work with the team trying to help Winter. During
the long process Kyle is drawn out of his funk as he realizes
that he and Winter have such similar needs. It takes a long
time, with many trials and errors before the dolphin will
accept and use a prosthetic tale, the film thus teaching
the necessity of perseverance and discipline. Indeed, the
team has to struggle against the ravages of nature, with
a bad storm damaging the Marine Hospital so badly that its
trustees believe they must shut it down because there is
not enough money for repairs. Then comes the ole “Let’s
put on a show” campaign which helps spread the word of the
plight of both the perky dolphin and the Marine Hospital.***
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