Open Water Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)August 10th, 2004
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
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