Aquamarine

AQUAMARINE — ** — Sara Paxton, Emma Roberts, Joanna "Jojo" Levesque; rated PG (mild profanity, vulgarity).

Newcomer Joanna "Jojo" Levesque is one of the stars of "Aquamarine," and she bears a striking resemblance to the younger, "Freaky Friday"-era Lindsay Lohan.

This film also bears at least a passing resemblance to some of Lohan's earlier films. And like Lohan, Levesque apparently also has pop-star aspirations.

"Aquamarine" film is not a completely noxious or painful experience, though it's rather juvenile and has a cornball sense of humor that is squarely aimed at its obvious target demographic.

Levesque stars as Hailey, a Florida teen who's just about to move away. That's put a bit of a strain of her relationship with her best friend, Claire (Emma Roberts). Both girls aren't very popular with their peers and are unable to tell the hunky lifeguard Raymond (Jake McDorman) about their respective crushes.

But at least they have each other — for a few more days, at least. Their luck apparently changes for the better, however, when a freak storm somehow blows a mermaid into the nearby beach club's pool. That's where Claire and Hailey find the apparent teenage mermaid (Sara Paxton) who calls herself Aquamarine.

As it turns out, she's run away — or perhaps she swam away — from an arranged marriage. And she says she'll grant the two girls a wish if they'll help her find true love. Wouldn't you know it? The apple of her eye turns out to be Raymond.

The filmmakers have dumbed-down the source material, which is Alice Hoffman's short novel. But it's also essentially a reworking of "Splash" as a teen-empowerment message . . . or perhaps a preteen-empowerment message. And the script features some groaningly bad dialogue, especially the water-related puns.

But the three female leads are appealing, especially Roberts (the daughter of Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts), who shows some vulnerability and range. Hers is definitely the best performance of here. Although Paxton is certainly a better choice for the mermaid than too-old Jessica Simpson, who was originally cast but, thankfully, had to drop out.

"Aquamarine" is rated PG for some scattered use of mild profanity (mostly religiously based), some mildly vulgar innuendo and other references, and a few comic pratfalls. Running time: 100 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com