Aquamarine

There was a time when my very favorite book in the world was Aquamarine, written in 2001 by Alice Hoffman. (Interestingly, she also wrote Practical Magic, one of my family's favorite Halloween movies, but I did not like the book for it as much.) It is a thin chapter book for kids and teenagers, and as far as I know one of only a few children's books Hoffman has written. She also wrote Indigo, which you could claim takes place in the same universe, as it were, but again, I did not love that book quite as much. Perhaps the reason is that Hoffman's style can be summarized by saying that she captures normal life in the suburbs or tourist towns, then interjects that sleepy scene with a bit of magic. In Practical Magic and Indigo, you are reminded a little too often that you are in normal life. You long for more crazy things to happen. The movie for Practical Magic all takes place on an island while the book is set in New Jersey. While not bad, it does not give me what I need. With Aquamarine, the book jives a little better for me.

- Spoilers -

The story is about Claire and Hailey, two young friends who have known each other for years. They live on the East Coast of the United States where they have spent every summer hanging out at the country club. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the establishment. The swing set is rusting, the place is almost always deserted, and a recent storm blew debris from the ocean into the pool. At the end of the summer, it will be torn down. The only thing still up and running is the snack shack, where the gorgeous older boy Raymond works. It feels like their childhood is falling apart with the country club because Claire's grandparents, her guardians, have announced that they are moving to Florida to keep her grandpa from breaking his hip again come winter. The girls spend the hot days trying not to think about the end of summer despite having nothing to do. After the big storm, Hailey and Claire investigate the pool. It is full of seaweed and jellyfish, as well as a teenage mermaid! Her name is Aquamarine and she ran away from home to get away from her overbearing sisters, but she is very spoiled and does not want to leave the country club, even when Hailey and Claire tell her that the club will be gone soon. When she catches a glimpse of handsome Raymond, she absolutely refuses to leave the pool, telling the two human girls that they must introduce her to him. Desperate, Hailey and Claire set to work. They find an unused wheelchair, convince Raymond to go on a blind date at night at the club, and then put Aquamarine in a very long dress decorated with sea shells. The date goes wonderfully; Raymond is completely taken with her. Unfortunately time is running out. The young mermaid is suffering from the lack of sea water, to the point where she is so weak that Hailey and Claire have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes time to wheel her across the beach to the waves. Claire overcomes her fear of water to do this. In the end, the release is a success and Hailey and Claire go home to prepare for their new lives without each other. Some time later, Claire is living in Florida and anxiously awaiting the day when Hailey and her parents come for a visit. In the meantime she happens to see Raymond at the beach. He explains that Aquamarine and he are still together, and Claire sees that the mermaid is watching from far out in the ocean.

There is something really enjoyable and zen-like about the flow of the book. You really get a sense of these two girls living through a hot, depressing summer together. There is no splashing around, no shopping, no parties, no fairy tales to be found. This makes for a really refreshing contrast when Aquamarine washes up into their lives. The descriptions of her wet world are as blue as the words used to describe Hailey and Claire's dry one are tan. This ends up being really important because it prepares the girls for the unexpected changes of life they have been struggling to face, much in the way Chihiro experiences the world in Spirited Away. Claire's struggle takes center stage because she is far more timid and much less adventuresome than Hailey, who is a talented swimmer and much more confident, yet Claire is the one being forced to move away to an exotic place. At the end when she moves to Florida, her fear of water is not completely conquered, but even without Hailey there she is prepared to be on the beach and get used to it.

So, how does the movie stack up? Honestly, the 2006 movie is not that bad if you take it for what it is. The writers clearly saw an opportunity with the source material to make a girly, sparkly, box office film rather than a work of art like what Alice Hoffman produces. I would compare it to Mamma Mia!, Freaky Friday, and The 27 Dresses in terms of tone, with a little bit of The Little Mermaid and H2O: Just Add Water thrown in.

This version follows a slightly older version of Hailey and Claire who spend their time at a very nice country club on the beach where they admire Raymond the lifeguard. Hailey is the one moving this time, and even though her adventurous side likes the idea of Australia, she and Claire hope that her mother will change her mind. Later, after an overnight storm, they discover the mermaid Aquamarine in the country club pool. She explains that her father (king of the ocean) will force her into an arranged marriage unless she can prove true love exists and that she will grant them a wish if they help her. Over the next three days they work on getting Aquamarine into the right situations for Raymond to fall in love with her, since she has legs out of the water, keeping her in the water tower at night when her tail grows back against her will. A local pretty girl named Cecilia realizes that something is going on while hanging around trying to ruin Aquamarine's chances with Raymond, and she discovers Aquamarine's secret in the water tower. However, she is helped by a local handyman and the TV cameras show up to find nothing. Not long after, Raymond is still not in love with Aquamarine, but before she can try anything else to win his heart Cecilia pushes her into the ocean, allowing her father to capture her. Hailey and Claire are the ones to save her with their friendship love by swimming after her and Aquamarine is released. They all part without using their wish and with a promise to see each other again.

There are some genuinely cute moments in the Aquamarine movie if you think of it as a children's film. For example, Aquamarine puts on a pair starfish instead of earrings because they "compliment her," literally whispering affirmations in her ear. Its sense of humor is a bit closer to that of Alvin and the Chipmunks due to the all the sea puns, but the way it is written and acted reminds me a bit more of The Princess Diary. There is a lot of unnecessary teenage love drama in regards to Raymond, following the usual twists and turns of he said this, and she said that, and reconciliation. The girls in love with him for no particular reason besides his good looks, muscles, and generically friendly personality. True, Raymond does not have many opportunities to shine in the book, but the purpose of his character is not to be a piece of meat like he seems to be in the film. He is proof that love exists in odd places, that you can be faithful no matter what. Hailey and Claire's enjoyment of his company rather than their pining desire to be with him, which is pretty shallow in the film, is also a more unusual take on the prince character. There is not always a love triangle when a handsome man is involved. The lesson the movie has to teach is basically the same as Frozen, which would be fine if we had not spent the entire film banging our heads against the wall as Aquamarine struggles to get Raymond to love her. There was not enough attention put on Aquamarine's relationship with Hailey and Claire, so the audience is not fully invested in the dramatic swim sequence. The movie handles the subject of Aquamarine's forced marriage too casually up until the moment the skies suddenly darken, the water churns, and she is dragged out to sea. The contrast is just too jarring to take seriously, especially since Claire can barely swim and is risking her life to do this. Movies like Click lull you into a false sense of security with their humor then work their way up into a panic using character development before the final climactic scene comes. Aquamarine just sort of springs it on you. And lastly, I personally think they could have been more creative with the mermaid tail and done better with the CGI moments.

In short, Aquamarine is a pretty classic example of a good book being exploited by Hollywood. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. It is possible that someone trying to make a more serious version of the story would end up making something too slow-paced or just not as gripping. The fact that the movie exists does not make me mad, but I am disappointed that so few people know about the book it was based on. That book meant a lot to me when I was young, alongside the movie Splash, and stood as a quintessential example of the kind of mermaid stories I liked best: ones about romance, fish tails, and friendship.

Images from Wikipedia.

By http://iamamermaid.com/author/imamermaid/page/12/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36661675

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20960828

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