The 1980 film The Blue Lagoon starred a young Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins as a boy and girl who get shipwrecked and are forced to survive together on a deserted island. This new made-for-TV film is a little different in that the characters are much older by the time they are presented with their own survival on an island, but the fact that they discover their sexual awakenings harkens back to the first movie.
Teenage Awakenings.
Indiana Evans stars as Emma Robinson, a popular and very pretty high school student with great grades and a loving family.
Brenton Thwaites is Dean McMullen, a loner and basically an outcast at school who is always getting into trouble. When their class goes on a trip to an impoverished Caribbean island to help build a school, their lives change forever.
One night on the island, a group of the teens decide to ditch their chaperones and join a raucous party on a boat. Emma falls overboard and is quickly followed by Dean who attempts to rescue her. But instead of the two rejoining their friends, the sea takes them on their own path and they soon are marooned on a deserted tropical island. What happens next is what will define the rest of their lives. While their parents quickly fly down to the island to help with the search, the teens try to survive by themselves, hoping that they will be rescued soon.
But the hours turn into days which turn into weeks then months.
Maturing Under Pressure.
Emma is an organized, thoughtful girl and Dean is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. The story of their partnership on the island is the story of their maturity and ultimate love. But what will happen to them once they get rescued?
That is the question. When that happens, they must dig deep inside themselves to learn how this experience has changed them…for the better.
A fun aspect of the film is that Christopher Atkins, who starred in The Blue Lagoon in 1980, plays the teacher who accompanies the class to the island. Also appearing in the film is Denise Richards who plays Emma’s mother, a woman determined to find her daughter.
The parents of the teens are forced to confront their own relationships with their children, making Dean’s father finally confess his poor choices when dealing with his son after the death of his wife. And while on the island, Dean finally faces his own personal demons.
Conclusion.
The movie is something that will definitely appeal to teens, tweens, and parents. Besides the budding romance between the two stars, their family stories unfold and the love of parents and children ultimately hold the story together, but young love is front and center. After all, they are the only ones on the island, with the exception of a few wild animals. Emma and Dean discover a connection that neither of them had ever imagined before.
While this is definitely a made-for-Tv film, the story brings viewers into the situations and both teens and parents will most likely wonder how they would react in the same circumstances. It’s a more mature storyline than the 1980 film and it is also more up-to-date. After all, there were no cell phones in 1980, however as the teens discover, cell phones don’t work on a deserted island!
