Critic Reviews

• Joe Leydon, Variety

  There's a pleasantly dreamy quality to much of Eye of the Dolphin, and that goes a long way toward enabling audiences to ignore the formulaic plot and enjoy the laid-back charms of this innocuous indie.

• Nell Minow, Chicago Sun-Times

  For all its good intentions, Eye of the Dolphin is unsteady and amateurish, with its own problems in getting its message across.

• Tom Keogh, Seattle Times

  [An] unassuming, but sadly unexciting, family film.

• James Berardinelli, ReelViews

  There's real heart to be found in the story but it comes along with borderline saccharine sentimentality, a too facile ending, and clean outcomes that aren't earned.

• Maureen M. Hart, Chicago Tribune

  As Eye of the Dolphin makes some jarringly contrived plot twists, a viewer can imagine writer/director/executive producer Michael Sellers listing his assets and pondering how to combine them for one movie.

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  A limp coming-of-age tale set in the Bahamas.

• Bruce Bennett, Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

  A beautiful Grand Bahama island setting and majestic sea creatures can't offset an inert script and lackluster acting.

• S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media

  Drugs and drinking make waves in family drama.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  The underwater parts of Eye of the Dolphin are kind of pretty. Unfortunately, the rest of this waterlogged drama is pretty ugly.

• Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

  Eye of the Dolphin is much better than most films of this sort, and if it helps a generation of young girls want to grow up to swim with live dolphins rather than groom My Little Ponys, that's certainly not a bad thing at all.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  A lonely dolphin serves as a mediator in the reconciliation of a father and daughter who don't know how to connect with each other.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  There are too many fishy family crises and too few fishlike mammals in this earnest 'Flipper' update, which soft-pedals its New Age agenda until a climactic speech that promises we can learn from our dolphin pals 'not just intellectually but spiritually.'

• Stephen Humphries, Christian Science Monitor

  This indie, a Flipper for tweens, boasts winning roles by Bogie and Bacall, a pair of dolphins. The human actors don't fare as well.

• Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune

  If only the wooden acting moved with the fluidity of the underwater footage, the only bright spot in this clunky drama.

• Nell Minow, Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

  For all its good intentions, this film is unsteady and amateurish, with its own problems getting its message across.

• Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

  Carly Schroeder is strong and the film's genuineness compensates for the 'after school special'-style script and production values, making it a pleasant, even uplifting film.

Read all 16 critic reviews