Blake Lively finds herself in her own little Castaway-slash-All Is Lost-slash-Life of Pi type role with The Shallows, Director Jaume Collet-Serra placing a lot of faith in the young actress, who to this point is best known for her role on Gossip Girl.
The purpose is to basically place Lively’s character, Nancy, as an injured surfer on a very secluded, very secret beach (no one will even tell her what it’s called) trying to survive being stalked by a very ferocious great white shark. There is little beyond that, but for all its weaknesses, The Shallows proves to be a relentless, thoroughly entertaining film that thrives on primal fear and Collet-Serra’s flair for terror, giving Lively (and stunt double Sarah Friend) the physically demanding task of outsmarting a killer shark in its worryingly close to shore feeding ground.
Of course, every shark movie that hits the box office will forever be compared to Jaws in one way or another, and while Spielberg’s seminal summer blockbuster remains untouchable as far as “monster” flicks go, The Shallows puts up a strong fight for second place. The in-your-face fear of Deep Blue Sea is shaded onto the sole shark in this film, but The Shallows draws much of its strength from sharing some similarities with Open Water – or better yet, underrated Aussie thriller The Reef – in that Collet-Serra understands that in order to draw the most sustained suspense and terror from the script, the film needs to take place almost entirely in the water – or at least as close to it as possible.
With Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, much of the screen time took place out of the water, but with a film like The Shallows the viewer is completely immersed in the mystery of the sea, constantly peering down at the opaque surface knowing that the enormous shark could emerge and strike at any given moment. It’s a technique which keeps tension surrounding the film even when an injured Nancy is stuck on a rock formation, her life ticking with the tide and hunger – which she at least tries to battle by eating crabs, a habit more suited to her lone companion: an injured seagull (they are quite cute when they aren’t making loud noises and stealing your food).
An attempt at racking up some semblance of a body count does detract from the compelling human versus nature element, but knowing Lively’s character needs to see it through, at least to the end, leaves little choice for Collet-Serra. The result is ham-fisted theatrics showing off the unbelievable dexterity of said monster shark, necessarily fleshing it into a terrifying villain that bites men in half, leaps out of the water, and in one of the more visually spectacular scenes, torpedos into surfboards. The minimal approach to the plot is compensated by other ridiculous choices, designed to milk as much action as possible through striking visuals – though, at times, poor editing – and gorgeous photography, beauty mangled mainly by a cheesy built in advertisement for Sony’s latest smartphone and a GoPro camera, plus a melodramatic attempt at providing Nancy with a backstory.
The bottom line is that this is an entertaining, though unsurprisingly silly film. In fact, The Shallows may just very well emerge as one of the standout blockbusters in a year full of disappointments.
Review Score: THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Run Time: 86 minutes.
The Shallows is in Australian cinemas now.
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