Dead in the Water

In Rio de Janeiro, Gloria (Dominique Swain) is an ambitious young woman, whose father (José WIlker) is bankrupted. When the son of his business partner, Marcos (Sebastian DeVicente), arrives in Rio, her father asks Gloria to have a trip with him in their boat Boa Vida. Gloria, her boyfriend Danny (Scott Bairstow) and their common friend Jeff (Henry Thomas) get Marcos in his hotel and they go to Angra dos Reis. While in the sea, they drink Caipirinha and beer, and Gloria flirts with the wealthy Marcos. The jealous Danny sees they kissing each other, throws Marcos in the water with a lifebuoy and drives the boat to a distant island to scare Marcos. However, they have a problem with the propellers and when they return to the spot, they do not find Marcos anymore. Afraid of the consequences of his possible drowning, they discuss alibis and how to resolve the situation, shattering their relationship in an environment of high-tension and selfishness.

"Dead in the Water" is an amoral tale of ambition, selfishness and greed based on three shallow characters: Gloria is an ambitious and amoral young woman, having the behavior of a slut and capable of teasing three young men looking for the best one to support her; Danny is a loser posing of executive but incapable of taking reasonable attitudes or decisions; and Jeff, who stays close to Gloria and Danny not for friendship or loyalty, but because he wants to stay with Gloria. The final twist is very ironical and suitable for this reasonable film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tensão em Alto-Mar" ("Tension on the High Seas")

I saw this movie recently and although it is not a great movie, I just couldn't change the channel. Dominique's acting is really good, the guys are less than convincing but the movie still managed to keep my attention for an hour and something. The plot is not common, I mean how often do you find a movie were the characters are scared of themselves and of all the rest?, and the conflict is actually very intriguing, it really got me thinking what would I do in such a situation. It is not one of those movies easy to watch, and perhaps many people won't like it but I found it very interesting. To one of the comments that said that the "Mexican" guy wasn't good looking I would like to say two things: a) He was Brazilian. Brazilian, not Mexican. It is pretty different. and b)handsome guys do not make a movie interesting or worth watching. If you want to see a different movie, that might not be very normal you should watch this one.

This film is so bad, on so many different levels. I do not even know where to begin. Oh! I know! I will start off with a warning. Do Not Watch This Film, unless it is like for me, 3:AM and you're unable to sleep.

The acting is not even B movie caliber. But even Olivier would have a hard time squeezing anything good from this insipid script. It really is that bad. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters. The music is painful is as the dialog, if not more so. Plot? Threadbare. Cinematography was sub-par at best. All-in-all a truly dire film.

My advice, skip this film and watch an infomercial instead.

OK, so the story wasn't the best, but the soundtrack was great!! And to the deadgirls' comment...the guy was BRAZILIAN!!!Hence, them being in Brazil. Anyways, apart from everything the scenery and music were both great. Cool to watch on TV.

I cannot understand all the negative comments posted here. Its not an excellent film but certainly gripping enough to make you want to see how it ends. Probably whats most challenging is sitting through the first half. I caught the film on satellite and lost its very beginning. The film had the right doses of suspense to make you wonder what's going to happen. Is it a shark in the sea or something else? Once you get through half of it its very gripping. I think the director managed to bring out the paranoia and madness which the youngsters would have instilled within themselves in a real life situation. Whether it is a feature film or MOW is somewhat questionable in my mind. I think its a damn good movie of the week (ie: for TV).