Open Water

Released 2004
Stars Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis
Directed by Chris Kentis

The film starts out innocently enough, with a couple, Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis), headed to a tropical island for a vacation. Once there, they embark upon a scuba diving excursion, and that's where the problems begin. Due to an administrative snafu, they are accidentally left behind while under water. When they surface, they find themselves all alone in the middle of the deep blue sea. Actually, they're not alone. Their company ranges from the benign (tiny fish) to the dangerous (jelly fish) to the deadly (sharks). And, as they await rescue, they must deal with a variety of problems: nausea, dehydration, hunger, hypothermia, and exhaustion.

Summary by James Berardinelli

I love independent film-making, and this is an amazing movie given what went into the production. "Open Water" is something we don't see very often anymore, and that's a straightforward, chronological story with no digital effects. On one hand I really admired that, but on the other hand I think it would have been better if we knew the characters' fates in the beginning. Although far too many movies today unnecessarily open with the ending and then flash back to tell the story, this is an example where it would have worked very well because I was sure they were going to be rescued after a harrowing night in the ocean. I was shocked by the ending, because I never expected them to die--especially since this is "based on true events." Sometimes learning the outcome in the opening scene robs the film of its tension, but in this case it would have increased it because I would have known there were real consequences in store for them. There's a lot of tension in this film, but I kept thinking it was overblown. Boy, was I wrong. All of that aside, this movie does an excellent job of making sixty minutes of watching two people floating in the water engrossing. The characters go through various stages of denial, anger, and acceptance, and they do so with natural sounding dialogue that heightened the reality of the situation. It felt like a real couple bickering, whining and consoling each other while trying to survive. This film is an amazing accomplishment for a group of amateurs, and it will probably make many casual divers nervous on their next vacation. If there's one lesson to learn, it's to make friends with other people on the boat before you get in the water. -- Bill Alward, January 15, 2005