My partner and I went to see the new film Open Water last night. To be quite honest, I thought that the film was ok, but I've seen better.

Basically the plot of the film is that, Susan and Daniel, a married couple go in their vacation which they had to book in a rush, due to the wife's work commitments. The go to an island in the Pacific, probably Fiji. On the second day of their vacation, they go on a dive trip, as Daniel is a keen diver. When their boat arrives at the reef they are given instructions by the crew about where to go and what time to come back to the surface. A head count is done and it is revealed that there are 20 passengers on board. Most of the others on the cruise dive together, but Daniel doesn't want to do this, so they go off on their own.

Towards the end of the dive, there is a rather unfortunate mixup and this is where the plot begins to unfold. One man is left behind, he is furious as he forgot his goggles and there were no spare goggles on the boat. 2 divers return to the boat as on is unable to dive to the bottom. They are marked off by the crew. The man who was left behind persuades one of the divers who returned to the boat to do a dive with him, as the crew refuse to allow him to dive without a buddy. The two men enter the water, but the crew forgot to mark them off as being off the boat.

In the next scene, everybody returns to the boat and the register is checked and the number comes to 20, so the crew prepare the boat for departure. Susan and Daniel are shown diving under the sea, and the boat is shown leaving.

Susan and Daniel return to the surface at the time they were told to and discover that they have been left behind. They are calm at first, then Daniel lets off a bit of steam, there is an arguement and then the sharks enter the film.

For the remainder of the film, you see Susan and Daniel fighting for survival as the sharks harass them. I won't go into any more det
ail in case anyone plans on watching this film.

Open Water is not a typical Hollywood Blockbuster film, it is more of a low budget film, as there are no special effects etc used. As 2/3 0f the film is based on Susan and Daniel in the water, the film is quite slow. It does play on your emotions and there are many moments of suspense in the film.

In the ending credits, there is a statement saying that characters etc in the film are entirely fictional, but there was a twist in the final scene which contradicts this statement. There are no special effects. The producers used real sharks instead of animatronic ones. There were no dramatic sound effects either (apart from short bursts of Fijian music in between scenes) but these are not needed as the plot is so realistic. There have been many people in Susan and Daniel's situation in real life, some have survived, some have not.

If you do not like far fetched films, then you will enjoy Open Water. I like a variety of scenes in a film and a bit of action, that is why I did not enjoy it as much as other films. Even though I did not enjoy Open Water as much as other films, I can appreciate it's good quality.

*** For some reason this review is in travel. I spent half an hour looking for the right category and couldn't find it, so this one will just have to stay where it is as it's the best that I could find. No idea why it ended up in travel though***