One might be surprised to discover that there really aren't that many sharks in Open Water. The interest in Open Water comes not from sharks but from the hopelessness of the situation in which these people have found themselves.
Open Water concerns an average young couple on vacation left behind on a diving expedition. It doesn't hit them for a while, but they're totally screwed. Trapped out in the middle of a cold ocean, Open Water surprises the viewer in that the threat sharks pose feels far less relevant than mother nature's indifference to these people's situation. And, really, this where the movie disappoints.
Ignore the advertising, Open Water is not a thriller. Maybe if one has an intense fear of sharks or of abandonment, the movie may feed one's fear; but, otherwise, it's not even particularly suspenseful. Due to its advertised brand of low-fi psychological camcorder horror, it inevitably invites comparisons to 1999's The Blair Witch Project, but The Blair Witch Project, dispite all the backlash, was a far more facinating, far better film. And I'll explains why.
Much like The Blair Witch Project, Open Water involves rather realistic people wandering willingly into the situation that will soon silently entrap them; and, much like The Blair Witch Project, Open Water allows us to watch and observe as the characters recognize their helplessness in getting out of said situation. However, unlike those trapped in The Blair Witch Project, the characters in Open Water never really seem to care that much. They rarely get emotional about their helplessness, and they rarely express any kind of fear of the sharks. The Blair Witch Project's Heather Donahue was an explosion of emotion; Open Water spends nearly half an hour demonstrating exactly how unexciting and unemotional these characters are. They're a happily married couple, and the comforting presence of the other seems to be enough to keep both of them from ever getting particularly upset. Which is, well... not one of the more exciting things in the world to watch.
Say what you will about The Blair Witch Project, but it ended with a big, satisfying bang. Open Water just...ends. Perhaps the sheer abruptness of the ending is Open Water's biggest surprise.
But I suppose that, considering the sheer lack of intensity or emotion demonstrated in the rest of the movie, the actual ending of Open Water is far more appropriate than one that would actually excite the audience or...even let it know that it was planning on ending. I suppose, dispite my disappointment, it is likely that this ending is what kept me from regretting having spent money to see it. While I was annoyed that this movie was in no way thrilling, the ending redeemed it somewhat by arguing that it was never trying to be a thriller anyway. The movie isn't particularly successful in any genre, but the ending demonstrated a kind of truth to the material that was oddly validating.
Open Water likely only recieved a wide release because it was well-recieved for what it was and Lion's Gate Films understood that, if they skewed the adversiting enough, they could make it seem like something exciting. Something it wasn't really trying to be. It's an annoying business practice, but I gave Open Water a six out of ten anyway. I can't fault it for what it wasn't, as it was actually well done for what it was...which was the story of an unemotional, overly rational couple abandoned in the middle of the ocean waiting for someone to rescue them. But, again, it's not a paricularly exciting thing for a movie to be about. |
