Film Reviews

Open Water

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Blanchard Ryan
• Details: US/ 80 mins/ (15PG).

Loosely based on a true story, Open Water is a low budget, edgy little thriller, which sees a holidaying couple, Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) up to their neck (literally) in trouble. After finding time in their hectic schedules for a brief holiday, Daniel and Susan head off scuba diving to an idyllic Caribbean island. During their first trip out, the pair go under for too long, leading to a mix up in the head count. A series of unfortunate coincidences mean that the unhappy couple are left behind in shark-infested waters.
Since it cost a paltry $130,000 to make and has taken over $25million at the US box office, it's no surprise that Open Water is being hailed as this year's Blair Witch Project. And as with that worldwide smash, the writer-director of Open Water, Chris Kentis, is excellent at constructing an atmosphere of dread and foreboding around a simple premise. Where he falters, however, is with his central characters. Despite the fact that they are the only two people on screen for the vast majority of the running time, Kentis never appears to be concerned about making them particularly sympathetic or even interesting. That neither Ryan nor Travis ever seem to get to grips with their roles doesn't exactly help matters. The style of filmmaking, which saw real sharks beings used in favour of special effects, heightens the mood somewhat, but there's no hook to reel the viewer in. It needs a knockout punch.

Review by Garreth Murphy