herfancy

For the cinematography, the visuals and the impact, this is an extraordinary film. The footage of the bottom trawlers completely wrecked my emotions. It was so devastating to see all the needless damage destroying ecosystems and communities. It was also heartening to see the glimmers of hope.

However, this is where my disappointment set in. They really are tiny glimmers and all the hope was pinned on being able to scale the success of these positive stories to a much larger scale. There was no talk about what consumers should be doing and the message repeated several times is that continuing to eat fish is OK. No it's not. Not with 8 billion humans on the planet and the billions of farmed and captive animals. Not with the power corporations have.

There's a reason the trawlers are doing what they're doing and it's the insatiable demand for sea animals. We cannot continue consuming at the current pace. There was absolutely no mention of the ethical considerations of eating and exploiting sentient fish either.

I would have hoped David Attenborough, who says himself that he is at the end of his life, would now begin to make more direct and bold pleas to the public. People can't dilly dally as they have been and continue on the current path of consumption. It is delusional.

I really wish the film was re-edited with a stronger call to action.

I actually don't have a problem with the prayer and miracles aspect of this movie as others do. From a Christian perspective, what that little girl facilitates in the film is not out of the realms of possibility. In fact Jesus said to his disciples "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father".

The part I had a problem with was the lying and deceit shown in the film particulrly towards the end when they were looking to get the little girl out to the lake. These are not good characteristics to show in a Christian film as a way of getting things done.

I wasn't feeling very hopeful about this film until they introduced the stranded penguin. The penguin's story and the beautiful scenery are what really makes this stand out. The plot itsself is quite pdestrian and follows the standard Hallmark formula. The main characters are likeable enough but the chemistry between them is OK. It's definitely not the kind of chemistry that would make one of them potentially sabotage their career in the process!

One minor thing that was annoying was the makeup! Subtlety is not a strength with whoever did the makeup - way too dark and harsh for the actors' features. It made them look very unnatural.