Open Water Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)August 23rd, 2004
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.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
