Sh.. Sh,,, Sh.,, Shark? (Open Water (DVD))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Open Water (DVD)
Date:	22/09/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong, naturalistic acting, tense atmosphere

Disadvantages: Few too many establishing shots, slow start and too slow paced for some

Think of Shark films and you automatically think of Jaws and, perhaps, Deep Blue Sea. Open Water is different. It takes a more measured approach to the idea of sharks. Attacks are not personalised, there are no violent, frenzied shark attacks, very little blood (and certainly no severed limbs or fountains of gore) and nothing blows up.

Instead, Open Water takes a very simple premise: two scuba divers are accidentally left behind when their boat departs without them, leaving them alone and adrift in shark infested waters.

For the bulk of the film, that is it. We watch the two divers as their plight grows increasingly perilous and desperation starts to set in. Whilst sharks may feature in this movie, they are not the stars. Instead, the focus is on the divers and how they handle their plight.

The lack of blood and the spotlight on just two characters leads many to dismiss Open Water as boring - just look at some of the other reviews on Dooyoo. Ever the contrary one, I found the approach refreshing and ended up being pleasantly surprised by a film of which I had fairly low expectations

Open Water does get off to a bad start. The first few minutes had me wondering whether could be bothered with it, thanks to an annoying directorial style. The opening sequences (showing the two lead characters preparing for their holiday) are visually awful. Badly framed and full of shaky camera work, they are meant to convey the idea that we are watching some sort of home video footage. I found it disorientating and annoying, making it very difficult to see what was going on. Thankfully, after the opening scenes, things settle down and the camera work becomes less obtrusive.

The Director is also a little in love with his own camera work. There are endless shots of the holiday resort, beautiful sunsets and stunning landscapes. These are meant to set the scene and establish the idea that the characters are on a dream holiday, but they are so frequent, you feel they are a little self-indulgent or there as mere padding to ensure a cinematic running time

The story too, is slow to get going. The first 20 minutes or so are taken up with filler, showing the main characters wandering around the resort, doing the usual touristy things. It's not until the 30 minute mark that they become stranded. This doesn't sound too bad... except the film itself is less than 80 minutes, so this establishing material takes up quite a chunk of the running time. This will lead many to find it frustrating and boring and there is some validity in that view. However, after some initial misgivings, I found it worked very well, establishing a relationship between the characters and the viewer that makes sure you care about their fate.

Good though this establishing material is, it's obviously once they are set adrift that the film really takes off. Again, many viewers will find it distinctly slow, uninteresting and unexciting. The prospect of watching two people drift in the middle of the ocean for 40 minutes is not really an appealing prospect. The lack of violent shark attacks (the sharks are rarely seen and usually only fleetingly) and the absence of any big set pieces will turn off your average multiplex viewer.

Where Open Water really works is in the reactions of the characters, which gives a very human, emotional weight to their plight. The way they react is utterly believable and they go through a whole range of emotions. They are initially disbelieving, yet hopeful of a quick rescue. As time passes, anxiety starts to give way to outright fear and recriminations over whose fault it is. These reactions are all highly natural (I know they are the ones I would go through in such a situation!), well-paced in how quickly they occur and give the film a realistic edge.

It's helped by the fact that the two lead characters (Blanchard Ryan as Susan and Daniel Travis as Daniel) are exceptional. They don't do anything special (these are not particularly showy roles), but they do convey the feelings of the characters very well. The roles call for the expression of a wide range of emotions - happiness, anxiety, terror, despair, misery - and the two prove more than capable of capturing them all convincingly. It's essential that we believe in these two characters as ordinary people - you and I. They are the film's emotional hook - if you didn't believe in them, you wouldn't care about their fate. As it is, you share their fears and will find yourself on the edge of your seat, hoping that they will be rescued.

The amount of tension Open Water builds up is surprising in a film so lacking in action. Initially, you scarcely notice it, but, as the plight of the two divers becomes increasingly desperate, so the tension builds. There's no big, single event that achieves this; it's the cumulative effect of lots of little things establishing a real sense of menace and peril without ever resorting to cheap tricks. When the ending finally occurs (and it's one of those endings which will not appeal to everyone), the sense of relief is almost palpable.

Sensibly, Open Water does not try to over-stretch itself. As a low budget film, it has a limited run time which works in its favour. Excellent though the tense atmosphere is, it is only sustainable for a finite period before the viewer loses interest. Even with a fairly slim running time, there were a couple of occasions when I started to wonder whether the film could last the pace and times when the director's "atmospheric" shots struck me as little more than filler. Still, at just 79 minutes, Open Water is pretty well paced, establishing characters and atmosphere and ending before it becomes boring (although many will disagree violently on this point.)

The one aspect of the film which really annoyed me was the music. For the most part, the sound is appropriately minimalist - the sound of the waves, characters talking, the cries of the circling gulls and so on. This adds to the atmosphere and builds the feeling of isolation. Every so often, though, a tribal music soundtrack kicks in (usually people humming softly). This just sounds wrong and destroys the sense of atmosphere which the film has carefully created. This type of film doesn't need music and it's hard to see why the film makers felt the need to include it.

I seem to be in a minority on this one; most Dooyoo-ers rate it very badly (one or two stars seems to be the norm) Certainly, Open Water is not everyone's cup of tea; the unrelenting sense of tension will translate as "boredom" for some, as will the lack of real action or bucket loads of gore.

If you like slow-burning films which rely more on atmosphere than cheap tricks, you may find something to like in Open Water. Just don't assume that because it's set in shark-infested waters that it's another Jaws or Deep Blue Sea because then you really will be disappointed. Accept it for what it is - a well scripted, well acted and (mostly) well paced study in low-key terror and tension, and you'll find something to like.

Basic Information
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Open Water
2003
Director: Chris Kentis
Running time: approx. 79 minutes
Certificate: 15

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: It's no Jaws, but it's still a shark film worth watching