During a thunderstorm, a mermaid, Aquamarine (Sara Paxton), lands in the swimming pool at Claire's (Roberts) house; seems she swam away from home to avoid an arranged marriage. Her father will allow her out of the deal if she can prove that love exists on land. So Aquamarine sets her sights on beach stud Ronald (Jake McDormand) and hopes to nab him with the help of Claire and her best friend Hailey (Levesque). But what's this? Spoiled bad girl Cecilia (Arielle Kebbel) also likes Ronald and is going to stop Aquamarine at any cost.
As terrible as that sounds, it's worse to watch.
The film's flaws are innumerable: Allen's rushed, clumsy direction (complete with sped-up motion and badly timed pratfalls from bikes); the total lack of chemistry among the leads; insipid moments of "stand up and fight" inspiration (when snooty girls taunt Claire and Hailey for their geekiness, Aquamarine squirts water at them through her nose, like a porpoise. That'll show 'em, girls!); saccharine dialogue (Hailey to Aquamarine: "Love is the closest thing we have to magic on land"); and godawful pop music used to set up character motivations and thoughts. (Typical example: Aquamarine must get a new wardrobe to impress Ronald, so cue a wretched cover of Blondie's "One Way or Another" as she shops.) Truly excruciating. If you let your daughters drag you to see this poorly threaded series of music videos, you can't say you weren't warned.