Open
Water is not a pretty picture, to say the least. Shot entirely on
digital video, the clarity of the film is murky, kind of like the gigantic
ocean the two main characters float amongst for the majority of the running
length, itself. And if the graininess of the images isn’t enough, there’s
always the chaotic story left to do a number on your senses. Viewers who do
not like intensive screaming and discomfort should not venture into
multiplexes to see this indie-at-heart. But, like many of its fellow
low-budget productions, Open Water proves to be a worthy study
of…something. And I’m not exactly sure what that something is. Perhaps
relationships? Maybe nerves? Death? Disparity? Anguish? But, I do know that
it effectively beat the shit out of me, and that’s all that matters.
Now, I, of course, do not really look at
absorption of terror as a positive thing. In fact, Open Water really
wasn’t scary for me, per se. The true-to-life concept, in which a
vacationing, scuba-diving couple are accidentally left to fend for
themselves in shark-infested waters by their boat-ride back to the distant
shore, may be horrifying. But, going into the movie having heard the basic
premise, my skin wasn’t crawling, watching it. However, I was shocked and
uncomfortable, the only two emotions Open Water requires of its
viewers to succeed. All writer/director/co-editor Chris Kentis wants to do
is make us feel and suffer with the defenseless duo of focus.
And that’s exactly what he does. Just knowing that this goal has been
fulfilled, and I was thinking at the same time, satisfied me. This is
brutality with intelligence, one thing that is right up my alley, if hardly
anyone else’s.
There are parts of the movie that people will love
to hate, when first viewing them. All of these occur in the opening act,
before Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) jump into their own
saline-packed tragedy. It screams of the kind of wannabe sophisticated,
young-couple, “I’m so hot and heavy but too busy to just let loose and sexed
up,” stupidly artificial, travelogue-style that the new-wave of motion
pictures seem to be embracing, these days. I was rolling my eyes at these
“intimate” moments, originally, but now realize that they’re only fitting.
Susan and Daniel need to be this kind of stereotypical, striving characters
for their relationship to be highlighted, as they are stranded. One fight
between them, in particular, which drives the whole conclusion and gives
Open Water’s finish the powerful punch it has, needs this backing. The
first twenty-five minutes may not be interesting to watch, and they may also
actually be every bit as dreadful as I first thought them to be, but any
logical moviegoer will be able to accept them, because of the superlatively
gut-wrenching ending that they set up.
I may not have completely enjoyed experiencing
Open Water, but it contains all of the necessary traits that any good
movie does. If it isn’t entertaining, engaging, and jarring, then I don’t
know what is. As one who would like to think of their self as truly devoted
to film, I’ve ideally chosen to believe that all pictures’ positives, if
plentiful enough, can overshadow its negatives. I’ll be damned if that rule
doesn’t apply to Open Water. August is just as bad as January and
February when it comes to cinema; the more artistically inclined sect of
theatre-patrons are very lucky to have this motion picture as an alternative
to throwaway crap like Little Black Book and The Princess Diaries
2: Royal Engagement. Even if flawed, we can all look at Open Water
as a good teller of bad fortune.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews (8.25.2004)
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