The film’s premise is a simple one and, apart from the odd bit part player, Blake Lively’s Nancy and the shark are the focus. That said, a seagull seriously impresses in a supporting role and even gets named in the credits. Surely it’s only a matter of time before he gets his own IMDB entry and Twitter account.
Lively plays Nancy, a woman on a journey to find herself, consider her future and revisit the beach in Mexico where her Mom went to surf when she found out she was pregnant with her. A friend she is traveling with lets her down so she heads to the-location-with-no-name and goes surfing.
She meets up with some other surfers there, they surf and then they leave. It’s then that, as she’s trying catch one last wave of the day, she gets attacked by a great white shark.
From here on in it’s a battle of wills and wits between Nancy and her finned nemesis, a battle so tense that at times it is actually hard to look at the screen and is sphincter-spasmingly effective. There is one particular thing that happens off screen that, because you don’t see it happening, makes the pay off so much more effective.Aside from the hugely effective set-pieces, the surf sequences and scenic shots are truly stunning - both above and below the water. Those factors alone, aside from the sound design and the film’s ability to be both vast and intimately intense, make it one of those movies that you really should see in theaters on a big screen with kick-ass sound.
There are a few flaws, such as a dead whale that looks too fake at times and some scenes involving Lively’s Nancy on a rock that look like they were filmed on a soundstage or a studio water tank (and which probably were). There are also a few shots where she is slow-motion running or similar fodder for some viewer’s ‘alone time,’ but that doesn’t detract too much (and admittedly, it’s hard to make a movie with the central character in a bikini without their body being front and center on screen).
The Shallows manages to achieve something that few thrillers, or even straight out horrors films, have managed to do recently and that is shock your lunch out of you. There is scope to, if the studio was inclined to, make a second film and it might not be offensively bad. That said, The Shallows stands alone as a real edge-of-your-seat gem.
