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Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReThinkReviews. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant.

Soul Surfer

On October 31, 2003, a talented 13-year-old surfer named Bethany Hamilton had her left arm torn off by a shark as she surfed near her Kawaii home. Though she nearly died, Bethany returned to the water just a month later and, against the odds, eventually resumed competitive surfing, becoming a media sensation and an inspiration to fans around the world.

Bethany and two co-authors eventually wrote a book called Soul Surfer, which has now been made into a movie of the same name, with AnnaSophia Robb playing Bethany and Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as Bethany’s supportive surfer parents, Tom and Cheri.

Despite Soul Surfer’s modest budget and fairly standard overcoming-adversity-biopic formula, the film industry will be watching the success of Soul Surfer very closely. That’s because Soul Surfer has overt Christian themes, in keeping with the wishes of the Hamilton family, who are devout Christians and were advisers on the film. This led to an increasingly common dual-pronged marketing campaign, with aggressive outreach to Christian groups while downplaying the film’s religious elements to more general audiences.

But what if you’re an atheist like me, or simply aren’t Christian? Does that mean that Soul Surfer isn’t for us?

Maybe not, but the film’s religiosity probably won’t be the reason. In fact, religion is only lightly sprinkled throughout the film, with a few bible verses, grace before a meal, and Tom reading a bible as he sits beside his daughter’s hospital bed. Much of the religious messaging comes from Bethany’s church youth group leader, Sarah, played by country singer and devout Christian Carrie Underwood.

Most of the Christian elements in the film pass by quickly, to the point that I’ll be curious to see if some Christians are upset that Soul Surfer isn’t Christian enough considering the more religious tone of the original book. Or maybe they’ll be more like I am when it comes to seeing Asian Americans in movies — I’ll take whatever I can get. My biggest objection with the film’s religious messaging is that it seems to imply that the shark attack might’ve been a heavenly corrective measure after Bethany decides to forego a church trip to train for a tournament and later sneaks out of her house to go night surfing with boys.

AnnaSophia Robb does a good job as Bethany, and the film has some nice surfing footage while explaining the difficulties of paddling, duck-diving and edging out competitors for the best waves when you only have one arm. Bethany’s decision to return to competitive surfing is not so much born of her Christian beliefs, but her realization that her story is inspiring people around the world, and that despite her difficulties, there are many people suffering much more than her, a fact driven home when she goes with her church group to Thailand after the 2004 tsunami.

The biggest problem with Soul Surfer is one common to most biopics — how to create tension when the audience knows how the story ends, and how to create conflict when the real-life subjects are involved in the film. All of the characters in Soul Surfer are unfailingly, blandly nice, save for a fictional and cartoonishly mean rival surfer. Whether Bethany will ever surf again is never in doubt, and while she briefly agonizes over why she lost her arm, her faith is never seriously shaken or questioned, with most problems resolved in uplifting montages.

While a film’s story might be true to life, that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting to watch, regardless of your religion.

Soul Surfer is rated PG and is in theaters now.