The Shallows -- a review


There has to be a better way to get an Oscar than this!

When I studied writing in college, I was taught that there are three basic stories: man verses man, man verses himself, and man verses nature. The Shallows is definitely the latter version of classic story-telling: man verses nature. Although, in this case, it’s actually woman verses nature. Blake Lively plays Nancy, a med-school drop out who’s doing a surfing tour of Mexico after the death of her mother. Her mom’s death has shattered her to the point where she wonders aloud to her father about what’s the point to it all. Why go on, she muses, with such loss all around us?

But Nancy gets a hard lesson in the basics of survival when she goes surfing in a secluded cove on the Mexican coast. Unknowingly swimming right into the feeding ground of a Great White Shark, Nancy becomes stranded on a rock outcropping that’s just 200 feet from shore. Yet she doesn’t dare try to swim for it, because the monstrous shark is actively hunting her. And so it becomes a waiting game between her and the shark, but the major problem for her being the rock outcropping she’s stranded on will be underwater come high tide.


I saved the camera! I'll still be updating the vlog today! Woot!

The Shallows could have been really bad. God knows there are plenty of bad shark movies out there--some of which are enjoyable in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way, like Red Water. But thanks to a solid script and direction from Jaume Collet-Serra, as well as a great, sympathetic performance by Blake Lively, The Shallows is a gripping thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat for its entire running time. The reason it’s so gripping is that the filmmakers (as well as Lively) make you care deeply about what happens to Nancy because she’s presented here as a three-dimensional human being.

The shark, which looks to be mainly a creation of CGI is still menacing enough to be scary. The director wisely keeps it off screen for most of the movie, only bringing it into full view for the terrifying climax. But for the majority of the running time of the movie, the story sits on Lively’s slender shoulders, and she handles it very well. She has a great screen presence, and the movie wouldn’t have worked as well without her. If you’re looking for a good shark flick worthy of Jaws, then wade into The Shallows. --SF

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