Claire (Emma Roberts) and Hailey (Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque) are two girls coasting through summer vacation with their normal problems - namely that they are younger than all the "cool" kids - until they find out that they are about to be split up forever, and then their problems get much, much worse.
Until a freak storm throws the beach club into complete disarray. That at first seems like a disaster because the end-of-summer party might get canceled. But then something extraordinary happens. They find Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) in the bottom of the pool, along with a bunch of other ocean debris. How did this happen, you may ask? Easy. Aqua is a mermaid. That's when things get interesting.
It turns out that Aqua is trying to break free herself, because she's due to get married in a few days, and she doesn't want to get married for the wrong reasons. So she has managed to get out of that pre-wedding preparations and convince her father - the king of the sea - to give her the chance to prove that true love does exist. The only problem is that she has only three days to do it. If she can't, she'll have to head back home and get married to someone that she doesn't love. So naturally, she decides to enlist the help of Claire and Hailey, who can really use someone like Aqua to get their own groove on.
The first thing they have to do is get Aquamarine out of the pool, but she manages to do that on her own. It turns out that mermaids have the ability to use their legs during the day - she's just never tried. So when she hears someone is coming to empty the pool the next morning, she grows some legs and hides in the snack bar. The girls find her there and give her a t-shirt to cover up in, and the fun begins.
When Aqua spots Raymond (Jake McDorman), she decides that she is in love - after all, she has spent all night with the girls, reading up on love in magazines, so she knows what is is when she see it. Now she just needs to convince Ray.
It turns out that Ray is a good guy, but the evil Cecilia (Arielle Kebbel) wants to get her own claws in Raymond, so she sabotages Aqua whenever she can, and that nearly leads to disaster.
What it ultimately comes down to is Aquamarine asking Ray at the last moment on the last day if he loves her, and while he's a good guy, he just can't understand why she is rushing it so much. And since she can't prove to her father that love exists, he pulls her back in. This in turn leads the girls to jump in after Aqua, and this is what does the proving, so Aqua wins her fight against her dad.
It's a bunch of fluff, but it is a fun movie, especially for the subtle clues found throughout - such as a "shell" phone, where Aqua talks to her dad, and the complimentary earrings that she has - small starfish that actually whisper compliments in her ears throughout the night (as opposed to something that goes with the outfit you are wearing). It's cute.
Rated PG for mild language and sensuality.
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