*** PLEASE NOTE THIS REVIEW GIVES AWAY THE END OF THE FILM**
(I have put this in capitals now to try and make it clear... so please note if you do not want to know the end - don't read this review!!)
Open Water is a film that…..
Well its sort of….
Ok – here is my opinion from the start- this film is rubbish. Now I don’t know if I missed the point or something but after sitting down with family and friends and watching it I was left with the heart wrenching feeling that I had just lost an hour and half of my life I am never going to get back. I feel quite angry about this as all the hype had lead me to believe that it was going to be amazing and as an avid lover of sharks I was also interested to see how they filmed them.
The Plot
The film follows Daniel & Susan a highly stressed couple on a diving holiday that they both badly need. They arrive at the hotel, unpack and arrange to go diving the next morning – all fine so far if not a little tedious. There is a brief moment of female nudity at this point when Susan is lying on a bed stark naked claiming to be hot and then turns over and says she is not in the mood – bet she wouldn’t have done that if she had known she was never going to get any again.
The next morning comes and they go diving but due to sloppy people counting and them staying out 5 minutes too long the boat leaves without them. This is at about the point where you start to pick holes in it like…. ‘Why don’t they do one final check before they leave’ or ‘why don’t they take actual names rather than a tally of people’.
Eventually they surface to find the boat gone and they are on their own in the water with no foreseeable rescue … this is even before they discover that the current is taking them away from their initial position. They see two boats on the horizon – one in each direction but decide not to swim for them but wait for their own boat to come back.
Several hours later they are still bobbing around in the water and they see a shark – this causes understandable panic and they try to remember all they know about sharks.
Several hours later they are still bobbing about and are feeling sea sick – tablets taken.
A few hours later they wake up to find they have fallen asleep and have drifted apart – bring on a moment of tension and some loud tense music. But then they find each other.
A little while later she feels something biting her leg and then her hand…. Then he feels pain to and it would appear they have drifted into a whole bunch of jellyfish, which I have to admit can’t be a nice experience.
Too be honest I can’t actually bring myself to describe this much further as it carry’s on and on like this forever – or so it feels like. They actually argue and one of them (I can’t remember which -its all one big bobbing blur) shouts “I wanted to go skiing” – this for me was the best part of the film.
All in all they spend a long time in the water and he eventually dies from blood loss and she takes off all her diving kit and (I am assuming) drowns herself. Didn’t think your body would let you do that but none the less….
I think the major problem I have with this film is that those poor people who it actually happened to must have gone through hell that night. I can’t even imagine how much terror you must feel knowing you are in the middle of the ocean surrounded by sharks with no hope of rescue. This film makes a total mockery of what they must have endured and then assumes that she would just give up and put her head under water and wait to die.
I don’t know if there is even another way I would have liked it to be done…. I think I just wouldn’t have liked it to be made at all.
General information.
The film is rated 15 and can brought in most shops now. Amazon price £12.59 but I am sure you could pick it up from eBay much cheaper.
More details
Soundtrack
Weak
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Not applicable
Value for Money
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Open Water
Shot on digital video with a pair of unknown actors (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) who
... more
tread water for most of the film's brisk 79-minute running time, Open Water is a fact-based exercise in primal fear that will scare the socks off anyone who drea...
Open Water
15 miles from land. One million square miles of ocean. No one knows they're missing...
... more
Accidentally left behind by their dive boat when Susan and Daniel emerge from the deep with no boat in sight all they can do is wait and hope. Cold and alone they're...
Open Water
Shot on digital video with a pair of unknown actors (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) who
... more
tread water for most of the film's brisk 79-minute running time,Open Wateris a fact-based exercise in primal fear that will scare the socks off anyone who dreads...
very helpful
very helpful
