Review of The Shallows (2016) by Bobby W — 12 Nov 2016

This was a brilliant movie. If you're looking for a literal, slasher, gory shark attack film, this isn't for you. This is a thought provoking masterpiece of writing and directing. It is a metaphor for loss, struggle, fight, triumph, and continuing. Here's what the story is NOT about: the story is not about a girl and a shark, it is not a story about a man's (woman's) struggle against nature, well it is kinda, but the story is centrally focused on man's (woman's) struggle against self. The story begins with a woman struggling against a terrible tragedy that she is unable to get over. She is running from her pain and her life because she's lost a sense of purpose and direction. The shark... bare with me here... is about cancer. A HUGE, aggressive, pitiless killer that is relentless and merciless. The story is about the value of the FIGHT. We fight, not for ourselves, but for those that we love. We fight for a purpose, for love, regardless of the outcome. You don't know what's going to happen, but you fight anyway because it's there and it won't let you go.

The ending is especially poignant when Nancy says, "I'm okay". She's referring to herself, her grief, the loss of her mother, not just surviving a shark attack. And, a year later, even more powerfully, she gets back in the water, because life continues, even past the grief, the pain, the loss. This movie is poetry. It's romantic. It's Old Man and the Sea as a shark attack movie. Watch this movie again with an eye for the romantic and you may see the power in the writing, directing, and acting. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Immediately one of my favorite movies of all time.