Review of The Shallows (2016) by Max K — 26 Oct 2016

The Shallows was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and Nancy Adams was played by Blake Lively. The film was good but it wasn't over-the-top by any means. It was suspenseful at times and kept you wondering what Nancy's next move was, but it just fell short.

Nancy travels to a secluded beach that no matter how many times she asks the people for it's name they won't tell her, or joke that if they did they'd have to kill her. While surfing she meets two other boys in the water. The boys leave the beach and she continues to surf. She starts to psyche herself out when she thinks there's a shark beneath her and really it's dolphins jumping over her. She then notices a dead whale floating in the ocean so she goes and check it out. That's when the shark attacks begin. Throughout the rest of the film, she's constantly looking for ways to juke the shark and save herself at the same time. She is bitten once, wounded by the events of the attacks a few times, and even fell and cut herself on coral.

Blake Lively did a great job on portraying Nancy Adams. Nancy lives in a one parent family with her younger sister Chloe. Throughout the film you see parts of where her mom appears, whether Nancy is looking through photos of when her mom surfed or if she's hallucinating and seeing her mom peering over her. There were other characters such as the intoxicated man, Carlos, or the boys who surfed at the beach, but none of them were significant.

One of the film techniques I liked was when Nancy's meets her seagull friend. After Nancy is bitten, she swims to a desolate rock out in the ocean. This is where she finds a wounded seagull. From this point on, the seagull sticks with her and Nancy even fixes the bird's dislocated wing. When Nancy makes it back to shore, the camera flips over to the bird who makes it out as well. I think this is symbolizing how they both made it out and how everything would be ok. It could also be depicted as how she helped the bird, the bird stuck with her, and in the end they both made it out, whereas the intoxicated man tried to steal her stuff without helping her and ended up shark bait. Or even the boys who left without hearing Nancy's cries for help. No matter how many chances she had to call on other people to help her in this tough situation, no one answered. So she kept fighting like her mom always taught her. I also liked how when she first makes it to the rock, there's an overhead spinning shot (almost as if the camera were in a helicopter or drone circling over her) and the dramatic music queued. The movie producers want you to feel anxiety and notice how far she's out there and what she has to do to make it back to shore. Additionally, the scene where Nancy makes it to the buoy and sees the ship across the water on the other side of the rock, makes you think that this is her chance. The end of the film is nearing and you think she can make it out. But she shoots her flare and it's a total failure. She shoots another and by this time the ship is completely behind the rock. All hope is lost.

Overall, this is a good film and I would probably recommend it. It isn't a movie I would be super anxious to go see, but it definitely isn't awful. Some scenes keep you on the edge of your seat and it is very suspenseful. Maybe if there were more characters, dialogue, connections, etc. it could be better. But if you're bored and looking for a movie to watch, I would recommend this one.