THE SHALLOWS Review

The Shallows is just about what one would expect from a film about a pretty girl getting stranded on a rock as she is threatened by the ominous presence of a great white shark. The film is both a contained bit of biting tension while at the same time relaying little more than schlocky fun. What allows the film to transcend its rather simple and sometimes inferior qualities when compared to the big budget fare it faces during the summer months and become more of what a horror or action auteur might have produced in their early, limited budget days is the combination of both Blake Lively's performance and the sharp, concise direction of Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Run All Night). Sure, The Shallows is ultimately a forgettable movie that will stand to leave no lasting impression and may even be disappointing to those who walk in expecting more action and less mood, but considering what the film clearly sets out to accomplish from the get-go it fulfills its goals pretty effortlessly in that Collet-Serra uses the stripped down screenplay from Anthony Jaswinski (Vanishing on 7th Street) as a way to find interesting ways to convey the story. The outline is familiar and the beats we hit are expected, but it is the way Collet-Serra slyly introduces the context of our protagonist's situation and her background that might allow some of the more necessary things that need to be done when under attack by a shark get accomplished. It is the way in which the parts we know are going to happen are so seamlessly set-up that allow us to, despite knowing what is coming, still be surprised when those moments do in fact occur. All of this is to say that while on its most basic of principles The Shallows should be nothing more than a B-movie in the vein of something that goes direct to DVD it is by virtue of the talent involved that it has become more than that: a thoroughly entertaining thrill ride made credible by Lively's presence and made to look like that of a higher class of story by Collet-Serra's inherent ability to add real tension and stakes in an otherwise throwaway narrative.