Open Water (2003)

One of the things I loved about Open Water besides the fact that it's just a neat little flick, is it's complete and utter simplicity. Shot for about $130, 000, films like this still prove to audiences (mostly American) that you don't need a film loaded with pompous, overpaid actors or ridiculously bloated budgets to craft a tight, nerve racking thriller. And, even if you didn’t care for the film as a whole, you simply gotta applaud any tiny independent film that, shock of all shocks, receives mass theatrical play across the nation. This puppy was definitely the Rocky Balboa of cinema for 2003, and many kudos need to be thrown towards Lions Gate Films for having the balls to back this one up.

Open Water concerns a young couple, Daniel and Susan, adrift on the open ocean after being mistakenly left behind by their scuba crew. During the next 24 hours our happy couple encounter jellyfish, pesky little fish that bite their legs, dehydration, and oh yes...sharks. Make that lots and lots of sharks. And, honestly, that's about it...only, it's so much more. The old adage "less is more" certainly applies here, as we follow our couples first initial hours of being stranded in which they maintain a semblance of hope, to the ensuing passing hours and ultimate realization that they very well may not be surviving their ordeal. Open Water is definitely a film where the viewer comes to feel for what the onscreen characters are going through, and if I had a dollar for every time I said "god, that would suck" as the movie played, I'd be a very rich man. Actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis as our couple in peril do a great job portraying fear and shock of the situation they are stuck in, and though many a reviewer has slagged them for not being "real" enough, I'll say they did a damn fine job. Plus, they swam with real life bull and reef sharks for their art...think Jennifer Lopez or Tom Cruise would have done the same? Kudos to you guys from The Apocalypse for creating a real life couple that the audience truly empathized with. Oh, and Blanchard? Nice boobs honey...whew.

"Ahem"...anyway, though our doomed couple encounter everything from jellyfish and hypothermia, I'll answer the question you all have on your minds, "what about the damn shark attacks?". As much as I love the patented pissed off rubber sharks in Jaws and even Enzo Castellari's gloriously cheesy Great White, I gotta applaud director Chris Kentis for finally presenting some of the most realistic examples of shark behavior on celluloid. The dude boned up on his Discovery Channel "Shark Week" viewing for sure, and, even though I love a big thirty foot, pissed off, "I'll swallow you whole and eat this helicopter too" kind of shark, I truly dug the realistic approach to all the shark mayhem onscreen. These sharks don't chomp and ask questions later, they circle you, they act a little skittish, then they bump you, then they circle you and, yes, then they eat you. The minute that first shark pops up about 6 feet from our unlucky couple, you just know they’re fucked, simple as that. There's a heavy, brooding sense of impending doom throughout this baby, with everything culminating in a simply terrific sequence in which our couple encounters many a shark amidst a nighttime thunderstorm…. god that would suck. See, I did it again. Keep your eyes peeled for that near final shot of Blanchard getting an above and below water view of about forty sharks swimming around her. Pull the fucking trigger already. Damn, that would suck. There I go again.....

All being said, I'll give Open Water a solid, and I do mean solid, thumbs up of approval. It's one of those films where you find you, the viewer, placing yourself as you watch it in the roles of the onscreen actors, and here that makes for a bumpy ride. While far from being scary as in The Exorcist scary, this one is more along the lines of a "keep you on the edge of your seat" kind of deal. It's amazing to me that a film shot for peanuts by essentially a husband and wife crew can create and invoke such audience reactions that the latest billion dollar Hollywood crapfest could only hope to induce. Good stuff and highly recommended.