DOLPHIN TALE

title: DOLPHIN TALE
year: 2011
cast: Nathan Gamble, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick
rating: **1/2

The biggest problem with this movie… about an injured dolphin that’s rescued and given a prosthetic tail… is the dolphin itself, played by real life “Winter,” is hardly around. Inspired by a true story, the main character is a child actor straight out of FREE WILLY. He not only helped rescue Winter, but is the only human being that the dolphin really responds with. Much of the film centers on the kid, his family – which includes a single mother and an athletic cousin wounded in battle – and the aquatic caretakers, headed by Henry Connick Jr. and his young daughter. Things drag along till the kid meets Morgan Freeman while visiting his cousin at a Veteran’s Hospital. Freeman, who creates prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers, is the man who gives the dolphin its new tail (several, in fact). Winter violently rejects all prototypes till the very ending: when it all comes down to the line. Directed by AMERICAN GRAFFITI alumni Charles Martin Smith, this is more melodrama than adventure, but flows decently enough and most importantly, children will take interest.