Father, daughter learn to love

Former CIA agent turned filmmaker -- go figure on that one -- Michael D. Sellers turns in a story about a reunited father and daughter who learn to love and appreciate each other while fighting to keep the father’s Caribbean aquatic research lab in operation. His work is based on understanding the ways in which dolphins talk to each other -- it’s all about communication. (Get it?) Overly earnest and roughly constructed, the film is bearable largely thanks to the performance as the daughter by Carly Schroeder, recently seen in the girls’ soccer pic, “Gracie.” Whether it’s acting or good timing, Schroeder has the disaffected harrumphing of early adolescence down cold. As the story asks her character to drop the troublemaker’s eye-liner for a fresh-scrubbed attitude, the point is repeatedly hammered home through over-obvious connections to the dolphins, and much is made of the difference between animals in the wild and controlled environments. Passable if uninspired family fare, “Eye of the Dolphin” doesn’t exactly burn with the eye of the tiger.

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“Eye of the Dolphin.” MPAA rating: PG-13 for some substance abuse involving a young teen. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes. In selected theaters.