The Shallows: Gefahr aus der Tiefe

Entertaining 'shark' movie that adds a modern twist to the Jaws films of the 1970s and 80s. The location is supposed to be some surfers paradise beach in Mexico (in reality filmed in Australia) where a lone surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) ends up stranded a mere 200m from the safety of the beach by an angry Carcharadon carcharias (Great White Shark).

Nancy heavily losing blood from a deep leg wound ends up finding solace on a rock. To add to the screenplay she is befriended by a seagull she names Steven. Do you get the joke Steven Seagull? The shark effects are all cleverly added by CGI which of course Steven Spielberg didn't have available at the time of shooting Jaws in 1975. I suppose there is little manoeuvre for the screenplay. Don't get me wrong an entertaining watch but just highlights for me how good Jaws was.

Blake Lively plays Nancy, a medical student taking time off from her studies and plans to go to a secluded beach in Mexico with a pal for some surfing. Let down by her friend she heads alone hoping for a period of self reflection as this was the beach her now deceased mother once visited when she was young.

While she is surfing alone she is attacked by a large shark. Injured, bleeding she is stranded on a rock. She looks for help but no one is about, her medical skills are used to patch herself up the best she can and she realises that she is only safe on the rock as it is low tide. As the tide rises, she needs to get to safety, but the shark is circling round. Nancy needs to somehow outwit the shark.

This is really a low budget B movie. The CGI is ordinary and the story is preposterous. Nancy is in a remote location but she gets excellent wifi and a mobile phone signal.

The shark is of course demented, hell bent in gobbling up Nancy when their are other food sources about (maybe he saw her performance in Savages!)

A young American woman goes surfing alone at a secluded beach in Mexico but finds herself stranded on a rock with a hungry great white shark circling. And a seagull called Steve for company! This makes a great change from the glut of ridiculous shark movies "inspired" by the likes of 'Sharknado". No roaring shark (I didn't hear any anyway) and no CGI that looks like they were done by a 5 year old. Sure, there are goofs and gaffs, and I felt that the final showdown was pretty silly. However it is nicely filmed, has decent effects, plenty of tension and Blake Lively does a good job as the heroine. She also looks mighty fine in a bikini!

Steven Spielberg has a lot to answer for. Ever since he made Jaws in 1975 there have been countless attempts on the big screen to emulate that film and all have failed. Some have been excruciatingly bad but thankfully The Shallows isn't one of those. This is the story of Nancy who travels to a secluded beach to surf . While in the water , she is hunted by a great white shark and finds herself stranded on a rock with the tide going out . Wounded and with time running out she battles to get away from the shark. Probably the best thing about this film is performance of Blake Lively. She definitely carries this film. The action is pretty good although totally predictable and it looks great up until the use of CGI underwater when it starts to look like a scene from a Sharks Tale. At a pleasant running time of 84 minutes , The Shallows is good bit of escapism but like every other shark film , it's no Jaws.

The Shallows knows exactly what it is, and that's the best praise I can give it. It's barely 90 minutes long, has a small cast, and only one location. Its only purpose is to give you a thrill-ride during that time; an adrenaline rush based on an ubiquitous fear among humans: being stranded in the ocean with a shark. However as the title suggests, this doesn't take place in the middle of the ocean. This woman is stranded only a couple hundred yards from the shore, close enough to potentially shout for help. What The Shallows does so well is establish this sense of isolation and hopelessness for our main character, and her situation of being so close yet so far from safety.

Blake Lively is great in this role. It's mostly a reactionary role - not much dialogue aside from some early establishing conversations to develop her character. For the majority of the film Lively is terrified and fighting for survival against a deadly shark. This thing is huge, like the Jaws' shark's father huge. And it's interesting to see how she follows its patterns and observes its behavior, allowing her to act accordingly without being trapped. There are some far-fetched scenes, sure, but Jaws had them as well and it's hailed as a classic. Now I'm not saying The Shallows is as good a movie as Jaws, because it certainly isn't. But again, the movie knows what it is, and as a short shark thriller appealing solely to our primal fear, it gets the job done and then some.

Now, it has its faults. The electronic music during the surfing scenes was immediately off-putting, and there are some slo-mo shots that definitely did not deserve to be in slo-mo. But the directing as a whole is well done - gorgeous sweeping shots of the open ocean, the slow build up before the initial attack, showing the shark only when it's most effective. The writing is clever and practical, relatable to the point that you feel for this character's predicament, and the acting as I said is top notch. The Shallows doesn't break any new ground, but it does exactly what it sets out to do - give the audience yet another reason to avoid the beach.