"Who will save you?"

Open Water (2004): 7/10

Poster (c) Lions Gate Films

Think of the movie Jaws. It plunges you into the ocean, defenselessly, allowing you to identify with the helplessness of the main characters. The same is generally true for Open Water, minus a famous director, an hour runtime, familiar actors, and fear. Shot on a shoestring budget with a DV camera, Open Water definitely has the looks of an independent movie, but it seems like a big-budget movie simply because of the riskiness of the shooting. They'd need a lot of protection from sharks, since they couldn't digitally add them in, and I'll bet the whole shoot was more terrifying than the actual movie was.

Workaholics Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan) take a much-needed vacation to an exotic island. They go out on a scuba diving adventure, but due to a counting mishap, they get left in the water as the boat sails away. Left with no food, water, and the impending cold, they have to try and find a way to get back to land. And if that isn't enough, sharks start appearing by them. Who will save them?

I think writer/director/co-editor Chris Kentis's goal was not to strike fear into the hearts of all of the audience members, but to create a sense of isolation and desolation, which he does spectacularly. The shots of the surrounding water, and the two characters as small specks in it really works to get the right mood for the movie. I could have done without a lot of the shots of just water in odd ways-it dragged this already short movie down. The feeling of the two characters stranded gets to you more than the occasional reminder that sharks are in the movie. It's not a shark movie at all, but the two actors were shot in shark infested waters, meaning that what you see is basically how close the sharks were to the actors. Does it make the movie tense? Not really, except for an iota or two at the end. But it does add to the overall feeling of helplessness, which is what the movie wants to, and does, create.

Both of the actors put in credible jobs, although neither are as good as some say or as bad as others say. They work well together. The way the movie was shot, the style of almost like a documentary in the beginning, was basically lost when they got into the water, but it didn't really matter. But the first act, while it was the right length for the three-act structure, seemed to drag on for too long. And the constant reminders of what they're missing back on land didn't help the flow, either. But overall, Open Water is a journey into the depressing and the isolating. If you're not in the mood for it, don't see it, but if you're game, go for it.

Rated R for language and some nudity.

Review Date: August 30, 2004