While I avoid derivative and
formulaic B-movie dreck such as the much ballyhooed ‘Sharknado’ or ‘Sharktopus’
franchises like I would their subject matter in real life, I’ve always enjoyed
a good shark-in-the-water (note the emphasis that sharks should not venture out
of their natural environment) movie ever since I first saw Spielberg’s seminal
masterpiece of suspense and terror ‘Jaws’ (and that even includes Renny
Harlin’s ‘Deep Blue Sea’). So when I
first saw the trailer of ‘The Shallows’ featuring Blake Lively’s bikini-clad
surfer-in-peril against a Great White that’s stalking her, in a manner of
speaking, the question of whether to see it or not was already a foregone
conclusion.
Lively is Nancy, a young woman
from Galveston, Texas mourning the passing of her free-spirited mom who lost
her battle against cancer and taking a much needed break from her medical studies
by going to a nameless and secluded beach paradise in Mexico where her mom once
took her surfing. After catching the
last wave before calling it a day, she found to her dismay and alarm that the
shallows around the pristine sands of her little paradise have become
shark-infested waters. What follows is a harrowing ordeal that would
test her endurance and will to survive to their very limits, as high tidal
conditions threaten to swamp the little piece of rock on which she took refuge and
render it shark territory.
She's gonna need a bigger rock (and I don't mean the one Ryan put on her finger).
She's gonna need a bigger rock (and I don't mean the one Ryan put on her finger).
‘The Shallows’ manages to be an
intense, riveting, suspenseful and visceral viewing experience without
resorting to the cheap and tired “mutant super shark syndrome” most shark-themed
movies employ today, especially those
from the Syfy channel. Lively is at once
charismatic and believable as the movie’s heroine, displaying much grit and
intelligence in her hours-long chess match against the shark that just won’t
leave her alone. On such solid grounds
it is easy to overlook the movie’s somewhat implausible and overwrought Hollywood
climax.
Grade: A-
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