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The Shallows
STARRING: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Angelo Jose
DIRECTOR: Jaume Collet-Serra
Genre: Survival thriller
Rating: 15+
86 mins
Ocean survival films starring demons of the deep have flown off the Hollywood conveyor belt ever since Jaws was a massive success in 1975.
As one of those classics almost too iconic to remake, we’ve been saved from nostalgia-tinted reboots or remakes, despite the sequels, but we’ve been bitten by too many imitative thrillers since.
Luckily, once in a deep blue moon, a genuine gem comes along and reminds us why the premise of a giant predator stalking the one element of nature humans can’t control is such an exhilarating concept. The Shallows is one such movie.
The film’s concept is a simple one and, apart from the odd bit-part player, Blake Lively’s Nancy and the shark are the focus. Nancy is a woman on a journey to find herself, consider her future and revisit the beach in Mexico where her mum went to surf when she found out she was pregnant with her. A friend she is travelling with lets her down so she heads to this nameless location and goes surfing.
She meets up with some other surfers there, they ride the waves and then they leave. It’s then that, as she’s trying to catch one last wave of the day, she gets attacked by a great white shark.
From here on in it’s a battle of wills and wits between Nancy and her finned nemesis, a battle so tense that at times it is actually hard to look at the screen and is nerve-shreddingly effective.
Aside from the hugely effective set-pieces, the surf sequences and scenic shots are truly stunning - both above and below the water. Those factors alone, aside from the sound design and the film’s ability to be both vast and intimately intense, make it one of those movies that you really should see in the pictures on a big screen with deep rumbling sound rather than at home.
The direction is absolutely fantastic too. Jaume Collet-Serra has a mixed bag of a CV, but here he nails every beat and turns common survival tropes on their head. In fact, what he does best is what he doesn’t put on camera, creating much more tension and atmosphere than by being direct and crude.
Lively also gives one of her best performances to date. She has to carry pretty much the entire film on her shoulders, but she does it with aplomb as she travels the spectrum of emotions such a situation entails. She’s a believable heroine that proves to be a good match for the shark.
Undoubtedly, the star of the show is one of the supporting characters … Steven Seagull! Robinson Crusoe had Friday, Tom Hanks had Wilson, and now Nancy has Steven. I don’t want to ruin some of his best moments, but this is surely the best turn by an actual, non-CGI avian in cinematic history.
The movie isn’t entirely perfect. There are a few flaws, such as a dead whale that looks too fake at times and some scenes involving Nancy on a rock that look like they were filmed on a soundstage or a studio water tank. There are also a few shots where she is slow-motion running that pander too crudely to the male audience than necessary, but to be fair, it’s hard to escape putting a bikini-clad blonde front and centre considering the circumstances.
The Shallows succeeds because of its strong performances, and its ability to genuinely shock and thrill. This is an edge-of-your-seat drama with skilful direction and visuals.
Worth a bite!
Showing at: Novo Cinemas, Cineco, Seef I, Saar, Al Jazira, Wadi Al Sail, Dana Cineplex
Rating: 4/5
