(Hi there!  So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR.  Seriously, I currently have 162 things recorded!  I’ve decided that, on February 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not.  So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR!  Will I make it?  Keep checking this site to find out!  I recorded Sea Change off of Lifetime on September 17th, 2017!  Incidentally, Sea Change was the final 2017 Lifetime movie that I had sitting on my DVR.  I have now watched and reviewed all of the Lifetime films that I recorded in 2017!)

Based on the novel by Aimee Friedman, Sea Change tells the story of Miranda and T.J.

Miranda (Emily Rudd) is a fiercely intelligent and independent teenager who, having lost her father, is spending the summer on an island with the mother (Maria Drizzia) that she barely knows.  It’s a beautiful island, one that is very popular with rich vacationers, the majority of whom have spoiled children.  It’s a struggle for Miranda to fit in.  She has deeper interests than just popularity and money.  Add to that, she doesn’t swim.  With everyone on the island obsessed with getting in the water, Mirana is stuck on the land.

T.J. (Keenan Tracy) lives on the island year-round.  His family is not rich.  T.J. works for a living and he’s not going to let anyone push him around just because they happen to have more money than he does.  When Miranda first sees T.J. she notices his scars.  When she sees him a second time, the scars have disappeared.  When Miranda falls into the water, T.J. saves her from drowning.  T.J. claims that he just dived after her but Miranda gets the feeling that there’s something more to it, almost as if he was already in the water when she fell in.  When he grabbed her underwater and led her back to the surface, there was something different about his eyes…

Could it have anything to do with the legendary Seawalkers?  The Seawalkers are said to be half-human and half-fish.  Everyone knows the story has to be a myth but, after T.J. rescues her, Miranda isn’t quite sure.  Could the Seawalkers be real and could they be connected to the secrets that Miranda believes her mother to be hiding from her?

You’ve probably already guesses the answers to all of those questions but that’s okay.  Sea Change won’t win many points for originality.  If you’ve seen any other film adaptation of a YA novel, you’ll be able to guess almost everything that happens in Sea Change before it happens.  But, again, that doesn’t matter.  Sea Change is a well-made and likable film, one that is full of gorgeous imagery.  (The film really makes excellent use of that island setting.)  Keenan Tracy and Emily Rudd are both talented actors and they have a nice chemistry.  Underneath all of the talk of Seawalkers, there’s a very real and sincere sweetness to their relationship.  You find yourself hoping that things work out for them and really, in order to work, that’s pretty much the only thing that a film like this has to accomplish.

Sea Change ends with the possibility of a sequel.  Personally, if they did make a sequel, I’d watch it.