Review of The Little Mermaid (2018) by Filipeneto — 10 Oct 2021

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's tale, this film has nothing to do with Disney's animation, much better known and publicized. In this movie, a mermaid ends up being deceived and has been imprisoned on dry land. A long time later, a girl is born who seems to want to be a mermaid too, but suffers from a strange respiratory illness. This will lead to her uncle, a journalist for an obscure US newspaper, trying to find ways to cure her, thus crossing the path of the mermaid, who is now trapped in a circus in Louisiana.

To say that the script for this film is far-fetched and forced is an understatement... the script is terribly bad, and that's what contributes most to making the film truly forgettable. The story doesn't have any logic, it sounds forced all the time, it's really far-fetched to the point that I can't see any redeeming quality in it. The same can be said of the uninspired direction of the duo Blake Harris & Chris Bouchard. I can't understand how two heads could not think of anything better for this movie. I think they were determined to create a movie exclusively for TV, and they thought that would be enough.

Regarding the cast, the only positive mention to highlight is Poppy Drayton, an actress who, not being a star, has some ability and experience, managing to provide us with a decent job. Loreto Peralta, the young heroine, does predictable work; Armando Gutierrez is a gruesome and tiresome villain, absolutely uninteresting. The rest of the cast is too amateurish to even deserve an individual mention.

On a technical level, the film has some points that denote quality: the initial sequence was very well executed and introduces the story well, without wasting too much time; the cinematography is good, and the film has excellent light, contrast, brightness and vivid, elegant colors. The soundtrack does its job well, and it didn't seem poorly chosen. Unfortunately, that's it. The film's editing doesn't show anything particularly positive, the action scenes are predictable and cliché, the visual and sound effects are very bad and betray the very low budget available for production.