Cast: Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman

Director: Charles Martin Smith

Rating: 3 / 5

A real-life story; thankfully no where does it resemble a History Channel's Documentary...

-By Priyanka Ketkar

Movies inspired by true stories always make for a very touching subject. Movies with animals and kids are even more appealing and often make you go "Aww... So cute!". 'Dolphin Tale' by director Charles Martin Smith has it all yet it somewhere is not very tightly bound.

It happened in the year 2005 when a dolphin named 'Winter' was badly injured and found on the coast of Florida by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The Dolphin lost her tail and was fitted with a prosthetic one. The movie talks about the very same 'Winter' and adds some more drama to her story.

Young Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) looks like any other 14 year old kid - he is a loving son, interested in sports, always inventing stuff from junk and a typical boy yet, something is amiss. He is a lonely kid, with no friends who hates school and hates going outdoors (Why is he always so sad? Why is he lonely? Does he like, or does he not like swimming? These and many such questions remain unanswered throughout the movie). His only best friend, his cousin Kyle (Austin Stowell) is off to serve his country. Sawyer's life gets even sadder but just like after night comes day, Sawyer's sorrows are also to end soon.  On a hot summer afternoon, while cycling by the beach, Sawyer is suddenly called out for help. Initially he is apprehensive but as he gets closer, he sees this beautiful Dolphin, injured and in pain, tied up and caught in a crab net. How much can a clueless, 14 year old do for an injured fish? He manages to free the fish by cutting away the net but beyond that he just cannot think of anything beyond consoling the Dolphin. A rescue van from Clearwater Marine Aquarium comes just in time to save the fish. But this is not the end for Sawyer; the job is still half done. Suddenly Sawyer discovers a purpose, a reason to go out and mix with people and the reason is to save Winter. Not just that, but he even finds new friends in Dr. Clay (Harry Connick Jr.), Reed (Krish Kristofferson), Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff), the entire team and even the marine life at the aquarium.

The rest of the story is about how the two young 14 year olds - Hazel and Sawyer don't give up on Winter and end up saving her.

The movie is beautifully shot and even though it is a real-life story, no where does it look like a documentary. But that doesn't mean that the filmmaker has the right to infuse a truck load of melodrama in the movie. The story of Winter, the lesson about "never giving-up" and the story of Kyle the soldier is all very touching but it looks like they have tried too hard to make the audience empathise and are crying out loud- "Come on, cry!" More importantly, the movie fails to establish the characters and their relations. Young Sawyer's sudden love for Winter and his new-found passion appears too hurried and insincere (but he has acted his part well, it is the script's fault not the kid's). The focus should be ideally only on "Winter" but it keeps shifting from Winter to Sawyer's problems, to Hazel's life & story, to Kyle's predicaments. The director dabs at various issues at the same time and tries to establish a link between all of them and especially draws a direct parallel between Kyle and Winter's condition.

But if we decide to keep our over-active brains at home, then the movie will make up for an emotional, touchy, family drama. More than anything and anyone, the Dolphin - Winter is so adorable that even you want to be her best friend. Morgan Freeman as Dr. McCarthy who is a prosthetic surgeon comes as an angel who is the reason for Winter's survival and Kyle's recovery. Freeman comes only in the latter half of the film and although he is under-used, his presence is pleasant. There are also three songs in the background, of which the song- "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz is absolutely out of place.

In spite of having a very strong story and a good cast, the director has failed to bring out that kind of emotions from the performers and the screenplay alike. Like I said before, if you are willing to overlook the clichés and move past them, you will definitely enjoy this movie along with your family.