The Shallows
There’s a very simple review of this shark thriller starring Blake Lively- it’s an entertaining genre exercise. Really, is there anything else that requires saying about a film where Lively goes to an isolated Mexican beach to surf, and gets stranded on a rock formation after a shark attack for about one day, and 65 minutes of film? We can point out that Lively, decked out in a two-piece bathing suit and wet suit top for much of the time, plays this role about as well as she can with the broad strokes screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski offers her up in the script. And we can point out that director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan,” “Unknown,” “Non-Stop”) lifts as much as he can from “Jaws” and “Open Water” while also building up suitable degrees of suspense. And we can point out that the film’s set pieces are a bit repetitive, although given the premise, that is to be expected. But honestly, it’s hard to come up with much to say about the film. Yes, we get a glimpse into Lively’s character, Nancy, and why it meant a lot to her to come to this specific beach (her recently-passed mother surfed here), during a phone call with her sister and father that appears to play a role in her determination later, but the survival premise works perfectly well without it. We get some great, tense moments when she has to race to a dead whale carcass, or an old bouey, to get out of the water before the shark, smelling her blood, can get to her. There are “almost rescues” that go basically as you would expect them to, as well as plenty of moments when it looks like Nancy’s dead in the water, so to speak. And there’s a climax that makes you sit up and cheer like when Chief Brody told Jaws to smile 41 years ago. You don’t go to a film like this for original thinking- you go because it’ll be a down-and-dirty little thriller with gorgeous scenery and a fine hook of a premise that doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’m fine with that.
