JOIN USThe shallowsEnglish (A)Cast: Blake LivelyDirector: Jaume Collet Sera
The Shallows is a brave and successful return to the genre of ‘survival films’. The sea has always been a great favourite of filmmakers who have explored the genre, and The Shallows takes a fresh new look at the sea.
Other films that capture the adventures that only the sea can offer tell the story of the ‘deep blue ocean’; far away from the mainland with not a soul in sight. The Shallows takes on a new perspective, as the adventure oddly enough takes place in shallow waters, which most people would assume is where it actually is okay to be.
The film tells the story of Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), who is mourning her mother’s death and makes a trip to Mexico to visit a little-known beach, where her mother had come soon after realising she was pregnant with Nancy. One particular island close to the beach even resembles a pregnant woman. On this desolate beach, Nancy proves to be an excellent surfer, but is caught off guard by what the place has in store for her. She is washed away by the tide and gets trapped in a tiny island that almost gets submerged everyday when the tide goes up.
Nancy can swim the 200 metres to the mainland very easily, but here’s the catch: a great white shark keeps circling her little island! The Shallows is the story of who among the two can catch the other off guard: the shark or Nancy. Her only friend is a seagull with a broken wing who is similarly stranded on the little island.
The film is successful in keeping the suspense up till the very end. Blake Lively’s portrayal of Nancy is very convincing, and the shark attacks are always quite shocking.
One of the pleasures of the movie is the way the filmmaker has captured the sea: a shot of the wave breaking as it reaches the shore seen from underwater looks like an explosion of fizz; how many colours the sea can turn into; and in a shot of great beauty, we see jellyfish light up like morrison lamps under water, even as their shock cripples both Nancy and the great white shark.
In The Shallows, you will find a movie both thrilling and beautifully made.