Those who defend Dolphin Tale — and as I write this, there seems to be quite a few mainstream critics who count themselves in that category — will insist that it has its heart in the right place. To which I ask: Just what place is that? Would that be the same place where the human characters embody walking clichés, acting as little more than mouthpieces for the film’s blunt lessons about never giving up? And what about that place where the quest to tug the heart strings is so clearly all-consuming for the filmmakers that they reveal their mistrust of the audience’s ability to empathize?
Its advertising notwithstanding, the miracle of Dolphin Tale isn’t that its finned star (Winter the dolphin, playing herself) learns to swim again with the use of a prosthetic tail. It’s that she never leaps toward the camera to give a CGI-, 3D-enhanced wink before tossing on a pair of sunglasses and surfboarding into the sunset. Because this unbearably cutesy film does virtually everything but to ingratiate itself to the audience.
For Tampa Bay area residents, Dolphin Tale arrives with the allure of being about one of their own, and having been filmed in Pinellas County, and at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in particular. However, the “inspired by true events” notice displayed at the film’s opening frame should serve as a kind of warning of the liberties taken for the sake of entertainment. The artistic decisions made in Dolphin Tale are generally banal. This is a case where sticking to the facts would have been much wiser and fulfilling, because what transpires on the screen is cloying to the point of distraction. The film telegraphs nearly every development — and while it can be explained away as catering to kids, it’s just as easy to see its simplistic storytelling as condescending to their ability to reason and accept complexity.
With few exceptions, Dolphin Tale exhibits the kind of acting that has all the depth of what you find in a 30-second commercial for laundry detergent. Sawyer (Nathan Gamble), the young boy who gets to save Winter, doesn’t portray his fatherless, introverted character’s sullen attitude so much as make faces that he thinks “sullen” looks like.
The other main child actor, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, is a relentlessly chipper, talkative little girl who helps her father (the bland Harry Connick Jr) at the aquarium, and whose line readings suggest her true calling is enthusiastically asking her TV mom for more Sunny Delight. Not surprisingly, the easygoing Morgan Freeman does the best work as the doctor who takes on the challenge of creating a prosthetic tail fin for the injured Winter.
What dooms Dolphin Tale isn’t its cheesy, obvious plot developments so much as the graceless handling of those elements — particularly in its flat attempts to inspire those who have suffered disabilities. Dolphin Tale ends with about two or three minutes of actual footage of Winter’s rescue and recovery, and the joy she’s brought to others like her. It’s more interesting than the previous two hours.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.