THE SHALLOWS
US, 2016, 86 minutes, Colour.
Blake Lively.
Directed by Jaume Collet- Serrra.
The Shallows is a shark story for the 21st century. Clearly, it is in the tradition of Jaws – although Jaws is now 41 years old.
Audiences who see shark films are expecting some terror arising with men and women by the shark, expecting this shark to be demonised, expecting some jump cuts in the editing so that they share in the terror of the victims. There are all these ingredients in this film.
In fact, it is a rather small film, a rather more modest film compared with so many of the post-Jaws films, including the Jaws sequels. The focus is on one person and her experience of being terrorised by the shark.
The one person is Blake Lively as Nancy, a medical student who is still sad at the death of her mother from cancer, has emotional tangles with her father, is protective of her younger sister. She decides to go to Mexico to visit the beach that her mother had enjoyed when she was pregnant with Nancy, an isolated beach in Mexico. She travels with a friend who backs out of the trip to the beach, gets a lift with a local to the beach (he giving her the wise advice as she checks through the photos of her mother on her phone that she should look outside the car into the beauty of nature – which she does).
And she goes on her surfboard, huge waves, and two young locals also surfing – but soon, they go home.
Nancy discovers a dead whale with various birds picking at the flesh – and then, of course, the shark attracted by the blood attacking the carcass and getting ready to torment Nancy.
The film initially lulls the audience with the beauty of the beach as well as quite a lot of surf action but, once the shark appears and threatens Nancy, her leg is gashed but takes refuge on a rock, one of the problems being the changing of the tides and the rocks going underwater at high tide. There is a beacon buoy nearby and Nancy is challenged, even with her wounded leg and loss of blood, to time the circling of the shark and to swim to take refuge on the buoy.
Time passes. a seagull has been hit by the shark, bleeding from its wing – which, practically and symbolically, she fixes. Night, the sun during the day and has she shades herself a little with part of the broken surfboard. Will anybody find her? And, if they do, will the shark deal with them as well?
Of course, everybody is hoping for a happy ending – but the point of the film is sharing the experience with Nancy, the pain of her pinning her wound, the discomfort of the hours on the rock, having to swim through a whole lot of jellyfish, the buildup to the shark attacking the buoy and her using her wits as well as desperation.
At the opening of the film, a young boy has found a helmet and a camera with scenes of the shark, so we realise after a while that this will be important at the end of the film.
In a way, it is no great shakes (although the audience does jump out of its seat a couple of times) but, despite some plausibility holes in the plot, especially the time passing, her not having any food or water, Blake Lively, with whom the camera is in close-up love, is an engaging presence to make the film a brief time-passer. (And it was filmed in Queensland and on Lord Howe Island.)
1. The popularity of shark films? The Jaws tradition? This focus on an individual and her struggle with the shark?
2. The location photography, Australia standing in for Mexico? The bush, the beach, the surf, the rocks? The dramatic musical score?
3. The title and its tone? High tide, low tide? The water covering the rock refuges? The behaviour of the shark?
4. Nancy’s story? Age and experience? Looking at the photos of her mother, the beach in 1991? Tension in relationship with her father? Fondness for her younger sister? The memories of her mother and her cancer, fighter? The phone communications with her sister and her father, her father urging her on?
5. Driving through the bush, the local Mexican, his urging her to look at the local beauty rather than the photos? Arrival at the beach, happy to be there? Going into the surf? The encounter with the other surfers, friendly?
6. Her experiences, seeing the dolphins, the dead whale, the presence of the shark, the slash to her leg, taking refuge on the rock, knowledge of medicine, the pain of stitching, the tourniquet? Her being stranded on the rock for so long? The circling shark? The seagull and its injuries – and her later helping it? Time passing, lack of food and water, sun and the shielding with the surfboard piece?
7. Her calling out to the surfers, the leaving? Seeing the drunken man on the beach, signalling, his pocketing her phone, his return, being taken by the shark? Her trying to warn him? The next day, the surfers returning, her signals, their deaths, the surfer with the helmet and camera, her risks in retrieving it? Using it for her message to her family?
8. Timing the shark, attempting to swim, the many jellyfish and the swim, reaching the buoy, the shark and its vicious attacks, the buoy removed from its moorings, her using the chain, going down, the shark pierced?
9. The initial scene with the boy and the camera, it being reprised, getting his father, the car driver, the rescue?
10. The epilogue, a year later, her injuries, with her father and sister, graduating in medicine, going into the surf?
