Review of Open Water (2004) by Emilia L — 14 Jan 2010

I absolutely love the way this film looks.

Open Water is about a yuppie couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) who get lost at sea on a diving expedition while on vacation. As they drift with no signs of any other life except the animals at sea, they face starvation, predation, and the elements as they struggle to stay alive for as long as possible, in hopes of being rescued somehow. And that's pretty much all of the plot summary you need.

I've heard it said that this movie is "documentary styled," but I take issue with that. While there are occasional hand held shots here and there, most of the shots are framed correctly, there are musical cues, clearly visual elements (read: shots meant to convey meaning rather than document fact), and scripted lines. It's not a documentary. It's a feature film shot on a digital media, and a damn good one at that. I've always wondered if it were possible to use the grammar of film on something other than film stock and get the same effect. Open Water answers that concern with a resounding "yes!" A good film is a good film, period.

And Open Water is a very good film. Not only are the visuals and the acting first rate, taking advantage of the pristine digital image and using very talented, natural actors, but the story is remarkably well-written. While it's true it tries to get some documentary-like realism by keeping the dialogue as natural as possible, these are still lines, and they really create three dimensional characters. Moreover, the structure of the story introduces conflicts that are resolved later, and the pacing of the film creates actual suspsense. The challenge here is that the fcharacters are just floating at sea for most of the film. How do you make that interesting? Writer-director Chris Kentis manages to not only heighten the tension but take us realistically through the emotions these two people are going through as time drags on, danger increases, and rescue becomes less and less likely. I myself got so into these two characters that I envied how long it took them to snap at each other, knowing that my father and I would be sniping at our significant others right away (something I really need to work on). I believed this low-budget story completely, became invested in it, and never became bored. It's a remarkable achievement.

But it's not just a screenwriting achievement, either. As I said, it's a true feature film - Chris Kentis shoots real visuals, edits sound, and brings it all together in a masterful way. Again, the enemy is boredom, and with a limited setting, Kentis finds a way to keep us invested in this story throughout. He's a talented writer and director, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Open Water is great. The second best shark movie ever made.