There’s little in the way of reenactment besides impressionistic chumming of the water, and scant discussion of the incident itself, in which Hamilton was bitten while out paddling with lifelong best friend and future pro Alana Blanchard.
The closest we get to the shark that altered the course of Bethany’s life is footage of a local turning over her chomped board after the attack, shaking his head in awestruck wonder.
Barely into her teens and already sponsored by Rip Curl, the young Bethany is all shy smiles, while the adult version - one of a series of talking heads cut to by editor Carol Martori throughout - is full of praise for her parents, keen surfers who worked three jobs each to give their daughter and two sons an idyllic childhood on Kauai. Director Aaron Lieber, a surf specialist who shoots his own footage on the waves, followed Hamilton over four years, and weaves interviews with her family and friends alongside home-video and archival material, including a smattering of excerpts from Hamilton’s appearances on Oprah and other talk shows during her teenage years.įans of the surfer’s 2004 memoir Soul Surfer, made into a 2011 film of the same name with Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid as Hamilton’s parents, should appreciate the chance to check in, with Bethany now balancing marriage and motherhood with wild-card jaunts on the pro circuit.īeginning with Bethany preparing to surf one of the world’s monster big waves (nicknamed, somewhat ironically, “Jaws”), the doc cycles back to fill in the background on her childhood in Hawaii, where the youngster was coming up with Carissa Moore and other future stars on the local circuit. Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable is a feature-length tribute to the champion surfer who lost an arm to a tiger shark at age 13 and came back to thrive and conquer.
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