Review of The Shallows (2016) by Rebecca W — 27 Oct 2016

It is hard to find words to describe what I felt during and after this movie. The Shallows, directed by Jaume Collet- Serra, was filled with non-stop intensity, moving from one scene to the next before you could comprehend what had just happened. While this added to the intensity it also took it away. Blake Lively played a typical all- American girl named Nancy on a journey to try and cope with the recent loss of her mother. The "interesting" part of the film was that she was completely alone for most of it. I say "interesting" in quotes because it was strange that the director and writer decided to put all of the focus solely on the one girl.

Nancy meets two fellow surfers and learns the do's and don'ts about the area in which they are in. The others leave and she becomes uneasy but settles down quickly. Too quickly. She is then attacked by a shark and makes her way to a rock formation. A drunken man stumbles on the beach and gets killed by the same shark. Later the two original surfers come back and are killed by the shark as well. Nancy has to fight to stay alive all on her own.

In the beginning, the man driving Nancy to the beach did a good job of portraying himself as a native to the area trying to understand a foreigner. The two surfers who were also at the beach did a good job with this as well. They were typical characters for their role and did a good job at it. However, the director and writer could've created more unique characteristics about each of them to make the movie stand apart from others of its kind. The seagull perched on the rock with Nancy played the role of her companion, ultimately keeping her will to live going. When they first introduced the drunk man it was quite confusing because you couldn't tell if the figure on the beach was a person or a rock but the actor who played the role did an amazing job of portraying himself as actually being drunk. The young boy playing soccer also did a great job of showing how he was just a curious young boy who stumbled upon an emergency situation. His father's character, on the other hand, was more of a figurehead in the situation rather than an actual character. Since they decided to portray him this way, it tied back to how Nancy was alone from beginning to end even though there were people coming in and out of her life at the time.

During the drive to the beach, the lighting was bright and the overall vibe was positive. When Nancy arrived at the beach and was on the phone with her sister and then father her tone and facial expressions changed from enthusiastic to annoyed. Also, the characters never directly address the way Nancy's mom died making the viewer realize that it's something new to them and hasn't been easy to get through. As she was getting dressed to surf, the camera was placed at several different angles that made the viewer feel like they were the character or a part of what was happening. When Nancy entered the water the music kept changing from relaxed to intense and dark. The camera also changed from being above the water to underwater which created the suspense that something bad might end up happening. When she was attacked by the shark and spiraled into the reef, the camera spiraled as well dramatizing the situation even more. She made it to the rock and stood up very slowly, rolling around in pain which showed her pain and agony more realistically. Aside from her movements and the camera angles, the sound effects added to the drama making your stomach toss and turn at her screams. When she sees the large dark figure in the water, the entire tone of the movie changes. As she swims her way over to the injured whale the music gets louder and louder, intensifying the scene making you question what she is intending on doing and what will happen next. Another intense and gruesome scene was when she broke her necklace into pieces to stitch her leg back together. Her screams and facial expressions made me want to puke.

The next morning Nancy slowly opens her eyes, having blurred vision, she sees the two surfers coming back. Her vision being blurry reminds the viewer that her shark attack was severe and it has been tough for her to survive through the night. The first surfer gets eaten by the shark right away while the second one is a dragged out process. When the second surfer does finally get eaten, the viewer knows because his surf board pops up out of the ocean broken in two. Honestly, this scene could have been much more dramatic. Nancy's reaction wasn't as big as I would've wanted. However, from this point on the plot was too dramatic and fast paced. What did stand out was the ripping noise effect that happened when she was trying to get away from the shark and cut her finger on a reef. Also, her skin and lip color changed dramatically to go along with how long she had been stranded and injured. When Nancy finally got a hold of the gopro camera and they used that as the camera for the actual scene it made the situation somewhat more realistic. Another good realistic element was when she was stung by the jellyfish on her arm and you could see the color of her arm change instantly.

Throughout the entire movie Nancy was consistently faced with a time limit. When the shark was attacking the booie it moved on a dramatic angle. All of this again added to the suspense and drama.

For me this movie was way overdone. There was an abundant amount of action scenes with constant drama and there was never a break from it. Also the lack of characters did not make it any more appealing. When the movie ended, I was speechless because I was so overwhelmed with the amount of action that was thrown into it in such a short period of time. I would not recommend going to see this movie.