Tags:
Film: Open Water
Year: 2003
Director: Chris Kentis
Writer: Chris Kentis
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis and Saul Stein
Review:
This is a film that for whatever reason I didn’t see when it came out. My guess was that it didn’t come to my hometown’s theater. I would have been in high school so I’d go through stretches where I watched everything that came out and then hit lulls where I didn’t. This was on a list of movies to check out for a while. It has been recommended to me many times and finally ticked off my list as part of New Year, New Movie on Journey with a Cinephile.
Synopsis: based on the true story of two scuba divers who accidentally get stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left.
We start this by seeing our couple from the synopsis as they get things situated for work as they’re about to go on a trip. It sounds like Daniel Kintner (Daniel Travis) works in construction or he’s a contractor. Susan Watkins (Blanchard Ryan) is a producer for what sounds like an arena. They’re going to a warm area with beaches to get away.
What is interesting is that through their interactions, we see that things aren’t going well. What I’ve gathered is that she works too much. This was one of the only times that she could get away and even then, she’s busy up until they leave. Their vibes are off when we see them in an intimate moment. They could be headed toward splitting.
They do sign up to go scuba diving with a local crew. It is led by Davis (Michael E. Williamson) and he runs the operation with Linda (Cristina Zenato) and Junior (John Charles). They head out to where they’ll go into the water. Davis runs through the rules of how this will go. He’s interrupted by Seth (Saul Stein), who forgot his mask. He is looking everywhere for it, but it doesn’t seem like it made it onto the boat.
Everyone gets into the water. Junior makes a count of all the divers, then marks off that Seth didn’t go in. Everyone also is partnered up. Things get thrown off when Estelle (Estelle Lau) along with her partner get out. She is struggling with her ear popping. Seth sees a chance to get in the water by borrowing her mask, to which she agrees. Junior marked that the two got out, not realizing two then got back in.
Close to the time that they’re supposed to leave, Junior makes his final count. They leave, not realizing it is off. Daniel and Susan come back to find that the boat is gone. She thinks that they resurfaced in the wrong place, but Daniel is convinced they didn’t. There are boats in the distance. He doesn’t think they’ll make it in time. He’s also not sure if it is their boat. What they think is just a mix up becomes even more terrifying as time passes and what sea creatures lurk beneath.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start is that this has a simple story. It is supposed to be based on true events. I do believe there have been a couple of actual documented cases of mix-ups happening and then people get left like this. Now there is the idea like you’d get with The Strangers or similar movies where how would you know what happened to them? This is taking a situation that has happened and then making a fictional story from it. I don’t have issues with this, but I did want to acknowledge it.
Now that I’ve set that up let me say that what makes this work is this simple premise. I’ve not gone scuba diving before. I went snorkeling. It wasn’t that much different from what this crew does with our couple. Now there were only 6 of us in that group. If things went south and I was left, I could swim back to shore. This team went out into the middle of the ocean. This works for me on a whole different level as well since I have a fear of open water, especially being left in it like this. My anxiety went up as time went along here. It is amplified by the different things that attack this couple. They can try to swim away, but with the currents, there is no telling if it will help. I’d have to do something, like they end up deciding.
Since the story is simple, this then falls on the actors to carry this. I’ll say that neither are great, but what they are is believable. The stress of this situation gets amplified when Susan blames him for cutting it too close to the time that they were supposed to meet to leave. He then calls her out on why this trip wasn’t better played. Most everyone watching this has been in a situation where the stress is high and you lash out at someone who you care about. We then see them go through different stages here as they accept what happens so now, they go into action to survive. I’ll credit both Ryan and Travis for feeling like this couple. That adds an element. I’ll also just commend the rest of the cast for similar things. Special credit to Stein who disrupts everything to create this perfect storm of events.
I’ll then finish out with discussing the filmmaking aspects. I hate to say this, but the cinematography is bad. Not the framing or the angles used. Those are all good. We even got underwater shots that were a good touch. This is just grainy to the point where it was hard to see things. It also looked cheap. It was hard to get past that, but I will say there’s a realistic feeling. It almost felt like a home video. If that was what they were going for, that could add another dimension, but it does seem to be more budgetary. Moving then over to the effects, these are limited. They are still effective though. Just editing real animal footage is a good touch. I also like the sound design there. Despite the one glaring issue, it is still made well enough.
In conclusion, this is a simple film that is built on a terrifying premise. The fact that you are putting your life in the hands of this company and then an oversight puts you in his situation is unfathomable. It plays on fears that I have. They’re able to capture those and then ramp up the tension as well. The acting is good enough to bring the characters to life. The cinematography has its limitation with look, but it still can capture these people alone in the middle of the water. I don’t think this is great. The concept and execution make this effective. If you can get past how rough it looks, I think this is worth it.
My Rating: 7 out of 10