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 Chris' Review: This week, I'm reviewing "Open Water". Or as I like to call it, "The Blair Shark Project". Jim wasn't on hand this week for Tuesday Movie Night... so I will have to do my best to give everyone a synopsis. Spoiler Warning! I am going to give away the ending. So if you don't want to know what happens, just skip down to the blue text for summary of what I thought. Keep in mind that this project was based on true stories. The movie opens with the leading couple packing for vacation. Susan (Blanchard Ryan) is obviously a workaholic, taking last minute wireless phone calls in the car as they leave. She and her husband Daniel (Daniel Travis) had thrown together a Jamaican scuba vacation at the last minute. We see them in their hotel room (Full frontal! Woot!) going through all the blasé motions of a married couple. The next day it's off on the boat with everyone donning scuba gear. The couple joins about 21 other members of crew and tourists, all off for a day of diving. In a mix-up with the headcount, the leading couple is left behind. When they surface from their dive, their boat isn't where it's supposed to be. Initial panic by Susan, cool head from Daniel. They see two boats in opposite directions on the horizon but since they aren't sure which if either is the correct boat, they stay put, placing faith in the hopes that their tour will find them. After a while, both boats leave. Other boats and planes are seen but the couples' signals go unnoticed. A full gamut of problems are thrown at the couple, from barracuda to sharks, from seasickness to leg cramps. Near the end, Daniel gets bitten by a shark. just a curious nibble by a passerby. But it's enough that as night falls, he is screaming in pain and they are doing everything they can just to survive. By morning, we see her holding him in her arms. He has died. In a wholly un-Hollywood ending, she, stone-faced, unbuckles his vest and sets him adrift. She then turns her back on her husband's body as it's pulled beneath the water by feasting sharks. Then, calmly, she unbuckles her own gear, hovers for a moment, and lets herself slip under, never to resurface. The reason that I had to mention the ending is because it is the reason that I will be rating it higher. Any movie that can make it past the Hollywood machine to the masses without compromise is worth an extra couple of points on my scale. Now, on to the rest of my review. I've heard tell that many reviewers have called this a good movie that could have been great. I understand why. The entire movie was shot in a natural light, hand-held camera style that made me think "Blair Witch Project." Again, the same rule applies to this movie as did to "Blair Witch": The jumpy camera makes you uneasy, and it's easier to draw suspense from your audience. Whether this was a stylistic choice or a budget restriction, it worked for the movie. The natural lighting added a lot to the feel of the film as well. It gives it a home-movie feel, you're more prone to identify with the characters. Unfortunately, many of the camera shots, the angle choices, and some of the editing just screamed "college art film". In particular, the opening scenes on land where the couple is packing, scenes that should have been perfect because they could easily be re-shot, were sophomoric at best. The interesting thing about this movie is that it was actually filmed on location, in open water, with live sharks. The actors were very much afraid for their lives while filming... and it shows. Even during the opening scenes, Susan and Daniel have the bickering apathy of a couple that has seen their hard times through and is totally comfortable with each other. Never over-acted. Yet never lazy. Which brings me to the script. Chris Kentis had to have been married. It was obvious to me that this was written from experience in some instances. Susan and Daniel relate to each other like they've been together for years. This isn't a sappy romance, or some mythical true love that never fades. This is it, this is real. With bickering and arguments and comfort and partnership. From Daniel poised on the bed protecting his damsel from the dreaded mosquito to Susan lying on the bed naked, not out of some lustful thoughts, but just because she was warm. She was comfortable enough around him that there wasn't a need to cover up with a sheet, no shame, just years of understanding. In the water, it's blame. They fight, they accuse each other, but then for no reason, they call out, "I love you!" It always feels natural, not like some sugar-coated Hollywood love story. These people are really in love because they disagree and they stay together. They back the other 100%. The story works largely because the writing is so believable. From the moment the movie starts, we know what's going to happen. We've seen the posters. We know that a couple is going to be dumped in the water and have to face some sharks. We know someone is going to get bitten. It's a given. What we don't know, or expect is how this movie progresses. We start to connect with the characters, with their mistakes, with their irrational behaviors. We understand how they're feeling. We sympathize. So in the end when Daniel is bitten and screaming and Susan is trying to calm him, trying to protect her man, her voice of reason and her protector, everyone is tense. Everyone feels the suspense, because we can picture ourselves in the same position. So when dawn breaks and Susan turns her back on her love and allows his body to be dragged down by the sharks, we can understand how hopeless she feels, how heartbroken she is. We understand when she takes off her own vest and sinks beneath the water. We don't expect it, but we understand it. So aside from some substandard production values (due to the low budget) and some film school drop-out shot designs, this movie is well worth the ticket price. Superb writing, above average acting, and a vision that gives you nightmares, makes you want to hold someone close and never EVER think about going in the water. I give it 7 thumbs up. I highly suggest seeing it, but you'll want to have plenty of water to drink when you do. Trust me, you'll understand when you see it.   Jim's Review: Apologies: Jim was not able to attend Tuesday Movie Night this week because of a prior obligation. There. I said I was sorry. Now please get off my lawn with your picket signs and burning torches. Not only are my flowers dead, but the neighbors are starting to bitch. In Jim's stead: Guest Reviewer Madrigal Costello offers up her review of the movie: Five and a half years ago, Tom and Eileen Lonergan were left behind while scuba diving. Despite weeks of searching neither was found, though they did eventually recover some of their equipment, Eileen's wetsuit, and a dive slate on which Tom wrote a message begging for help. The movie "Open Water" is very loosely based on this occurrence…very loosely. This movie was the darling of the independent film festivals - probably because it does work as an example of just how much can be done with a small budget and little special effects. More than anything, this movie reminded of "The Blair Witch Project" with the emphasis on simplicity and old-fashioned suspense. However, there were some definite problems. First, they didn't seem too sure just how close they wanted to stick to reality. Obviously they were going for fiction and didn't want to have it involve the Lonergan and Hains families, so details have been changed. Tom and Eileen have become Daniel and Susan. Instead of a married couple who'd never even been known to raise their voices to each and took a vacation to mark the end of their three year Peace Corps service, they brought in generic stressed-out yuppies. Unfortunately, trying too hard for this "everyman" quality results in the couple not being endearing enough to the audience - to really get people to care whether or not a character lives or dies, they have to somehow show that the world would be less of a place without that person in it. Focusing on Daniel and Susan's relationship did help, and definitely kept up a high level of intensity. There seemed to be some confusion in how to present the factual nature of scuba diving - at times the couple seemed to be experts with official diving ID cards, talk of multiple previous dives. At other times they appear to be relying totally on information gained from watching TV. And it led to viewers questioning some of their decisions, one in particular that could be credited with the problems faced later on. And to distance this fictional couple from the Lonergans, they moved the setting from Australia's Great Barrier Reef to the Bahamas, what appeared to be Jamaica, ignoring the fact that while unprovoked shark attacks and fatalities are far from uncommon in Australia, in this part of the world just getting an injury is rare, fatalities occur maybe once a decade. Borrowing from the "Blair Witch Project" idea that the threat of violence is much scarier than actual violence, and just a glimpse of evil is more frightening that a full on visual, for the most part the bad guys of this film are just seen as fins above the water, but the actors' reactions definitely sell it as terrifying. Even having them bobbing in water benefits, since we don't get to see any sort of attack, and they don't either, but simply have to wait for the sharks to leave, or to experience the pain of being bitten. And like that previous film, the camera work is more fitting with the story and bobs up and down with the sea - at times they break from the couple to show tourists taking part in various island activities. Maybe this was to show what Daniel and Susan would have been doing if they'd been picked up. Or it was to show time passing. Or to make sure that people knew there was much to Jamaica than the man-eating sharks. Or maybe it was a break for the movie-goer from the constant bobbing camera. And while the idea of gradually adding tension - from the first realization of abandonment, to the failure of rescue by another ship, to nightfall, to a storm, the movie skips forward in time too often, and telegraphs future events far too much for it to be as powerful as it should be. All in all this was a movie that had some lofty goals, but stuck to the basics, concentrated on just how much people fear abandonment and being eaten, and was pretty good entertainment. But they could have done with some revision. And maybe supplied some Dramamine to the viewers.
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