OPEN WATER
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Lions Gate Films
Grade: B
Directed by: Chris Kentis
Written by: Chris Kentis
Cast: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Estelle Lau
Screened at: Loews 34th St., NYC, 8/8/04
"We wanted an ocean view, and boy, did we get it!" states one
of the two principals in a movie made by a husband-wife team,
Chris Kentis as writer-director and Laura Lau as his producer.
Photoraphed by Kentis and Lau, this minimalist journey into the
depth of terror is based on a real-life incident involving divers
left in the ocean in the middle of nowhere through the
incompetence of a tour team, except that the actual incident
involved a pair of people who may have disappeared not
because of death but because they wanted new identities in
Australia.
Seventy-five percent of "Open Water" deals with just the two
people who are left by the two-person crew of a tour boat
somewhere in the Caribbean. The actors are Blanchard Ryan
as Susan and Daniel Travis as her husband, Daniel. The brief
out-of-water segments show Daniel and Susan making final
arrangements, agreeing that because of their stressful jobs they
really need this vacation, resolving that they will access no
email and answer no phones. And boy, were they ever true to
their vows! After twenty people hit the water including one
fellow who forgot his mask and talked incessantly about his
mishap, begging to borrow someone else's, our heroes pop
their heads out of the water to discover that their boat has left
without them. They're up the creek without email, phone service
or a paddle. Their floatation devices allow them to stay easily
above the surface and to comfort each other, but we wonder
whether they will be saved, be bitten fatally by the sharks
floating about them, die from dehydration or drown. Their fate is
similar to being buried alive.
Hip people in the audience can predict what will occur during
their 24 hours or so in the water. Those of us who did not doze
off during a sociology 101 lecture about the ideas of Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross know that people who are in a terminal condition
go through five stages: denial, guilt, rage, bargaining, and
acceptance. At first, of course, the soggy couple assures each
other that everything will work out, that a boat will appear and
pick them up. After that, they feel guilty that that they strayed far
from the group, independent-minded folks who insist on doing
their own thing. Then the rage: "I wanted to go skiing," insists
Susan, leading to flat-out marital spat, while both agree to be
more careful about their next vacation. Acceptance of their fate
concludes their hapless voyage.
The movie has been compared to "The Blair Witch Project" in
that the terror is present with minimal–in fact in this case
no–special effects. Even the sharks that surround the couple
are real. Other films with similar themes include Steven
Spielberg's "Jaws," of course, and Hitchcock's "Lifeboat," the
latter starring Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix about
shipwreck survivors adrift in a lonely lifeboat during World War
2. "Lifeboat" has the advantage in dramatic possibilities in that
a Nazi is taken aboard the boat. But for absolute minimalism,
"Open Water" holds up well as the source of audience terror
since, after all, many of us have been to similar beach resorts,
drinking our margaritas to the thumping of steel drums and
could probably say, "There but for the grace of God go I."
Rated R. 79 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
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