This one surprised me. I read a few reviews before watching it, and many criticized it for being too simple and optimistic – shouldn’t a teenager be angry and depressed if a shark bites off her arm? – so I feared that it would be a syrupy, all’s-right-with-the-world-if-you-only-have-faith kind of film. These reviewers said the script must present a false picture, must have left out the dark moments of the soul. It may be true that we don’t see the whole story, but Soul Surfer is based on the life of a real person and it seemed to me that Bethany Hamilton was and is indeed the kind of person depicted in the film. The movie shows how she responded to her circumstances with bravery and determination, but it also shows her dealing with some questions and regret. She was back on her surfboard a month after the shark attack, so she can’t have spent a lot of her time being despondent. Yes, this is amazing – I couldn’t help but wonder whether I, a mature adult, would be as mature in behavior as she was. Strangely, her youth may be part of the answer. Since she was only thirteen at the time of the accident, in some ways she was still a child; this is a picture of truly childlike faith, that of a young girl trying to act in a way consistent with what she has been taught about Christian life.

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