Open Water
Matinee with Snacks
I wish I could be the first to assess this genuinely scary movie as
The Blair Witch Project in the Caribbean, but I have been beaten to
the punch. Everything that worked for Blair Witch (video, small
cast, complete isolation in the middle of nowhere) is at play here,
with the added implacability of sharks, creatures hat exist, for sure
and don't need lasers mounted on their heads to be scary. I don't
know what the Blair Witch is, but I know what sharks are. And they
are so, so silent.
Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis are the unfortunate couple who
bobbed for most of the film in the water. They are a normal couple,
with normal fights and normal stresses, in terribly extraordinary
circumstances. You've seen the preview, you know they're bobbing
alone and unmissed in the deep blue sea. What you can't know until
you see it is the agonizing buildup of tension, the apprehension that
accompanies any change in their situation.
I was clutching my companion (clutching back just as fearfully) and
moaning, just waiting for the shoe to drop, a shoe made huge and
toothy in my imagination; praying for something to cute the
tremendous bobbing terror half seen beneath the waves' surface. It
was riveting. Ryan and Travis have a heavy acting burden here - the
scene itself, the discomfort of the set, the reality of the lack of
shark cages, the intimacy of their story, the enormity of their
danger, and just carrying the film through all its waves of emotion.
And they have to be able to scuba dive!
Also like Blair Witch, Open Water succeeds by staying small. The
film Open Water was written, directed, shot, edited, and/or produced
by one or both of the husband and wife team of Chris Kentis and Laura
Lau. We hope of course that this is not some nightmarish allegory
for their real-life relationship, but the intimacy of the story and
the crew comes through, giving the film the very real feel of being
stranded out with them. The low tech video gives the scenes a sense
of immediacy and reality that would have been lost on gorgeous 35 mm
film. Even big time composer Graeme Revell didn't score the film to
be bigger than it was (he did a similar feat with Human Nature). If
Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts had been in those wetsuits, all we would
think about is what flavor latte they had in the houseboat between
shots. Here, you believe it was shot just as you see it.
The film is short, ending abruptly and chillingly, but it will stick
with you. Despite its TV Movie-style exposition, the characters feel
real, the setting feels warm, wet, and the fatal mistakes feel huge.
I was scared out of my wits,but it was highly enjoyable, and very
well executed. Trust your judgement as to whether you can handle it.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to
forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can
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========== X-RAMR-ID: 38503 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1312583 X-RT-TitleID: 1134547 X-RT-SourceID: 755 X-RT-AuthorID: 3661 X-RT-RatingText: 4.5/5
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