Movie Review: The Shallows (2016)

The Shallows (2016) directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Medical school student Nancy (Blake Lively) goes to a secluded Mexican beach for a day of surfing. A friend was supposed to come with her but stayed at the hotel, too hungover. Nancy catches a ride with a local who convinces her to pay more attention to the beautiful jungle rather than to pictures on her cell phone. She's been looking at a lot of photos from 1992 when her mom came to the same beach while pregnant with Nancy. She has some sentimental and some sorrowful issues that motivated her trip. The situation takes a bad turn out on the water. Nancy discovers a beat-up whale that has drawn a shark. Nancy gets caught a few hundred yards from shore on a small reef--too far to swim before the shark gets her. She patches up a wound on her leg, the first step in her hoped-for survival. Can she make it to shore? Can she get help?

The premise is simple but convincing. Nancy has enough character development in the first ten or fifteen minutes to make her sympathetic and intriguing. A phone call from home establishes her personal relationships with her dad and her sister (her mom died recently). The tension builds up quickly and convincingly, making the movie a satisfying thriller. Lively's performance is fine and she's not treated like a sex object by the camera, which could have easily tanked the film's credibility and ruined her performance. The visual effects are seamless and the location is beautiful. Occasional moments are a bit over the top (how far can a shark throw a surf board in the air?) but are easy to overlook for the bigger story.

Recommended.