“The Shallows” (2016) is minimalist shark horror as high art. Surfer/med student Nancy (Blake Lively) gets stranded on a rock two football-field lengths from a Mexican beach as a shark circles. The actress, writer Anthony Jaswinski (too bad it’s not Jaws-inski) and director Jaume Collet-Serra sustained my interest in this ultra-simple plot for 86 minutes. No small feat, as I’m wired to enjoy spectacle in the vein of “Deep Blue Sea” and “The Meg.”
Colorful planet
The art is of the visual variety. Cinematographer Flavio Labiano lenses coastal waters (Australia stands in for Mexico) like shots from the Earth Porn Facebook page. Overhead shots show us Nancy’s logistical situation – the distance to the shore, to a whale carcass, and to a buoy – and the silhouette of the shark, but also the vibrant colors of the water, reefs, rocks, plants and sand.
Lively isn’t asked to do as much as Tom Hanks in “Cast Away,” but nonetheless she has grown as an actress since “Gossip Girl” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” Instead of befriending a volleyball, she befriends the wing-damaged “Steven Seagull,” the only being she can talk to on the rock.
“The Shallows” (2016)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer: Anthony Jaswinski
Stars: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Brett Cullen
On Tuesdays this summer, Reviews from My Couch is highlighting classic (and not so classic) shark horror films through the years.
Nancy is far from perfect. Some viewers will side with her kid sister, who warns her via cellphone that it’s not smart to surf alone on a secluded beach. Nancy absorbs some of that paranoia: From the breakers, she keeps a wary eye on two fellow surfers as they walk past her backpack on the beach.
“The Shallows” emphasizes an uneasy situation wherein Nancy knows only a little Spanish and these other surfers – plus the man who drives her to the beach – know only a little English.
We also see her calm intelligence. Her med-school knowledge comes in handy after the initial shark bite to her leg as she makes creative use of every inch of her wetsuit top.
Shark shares top billing
The shark is Lively’s co-lead. “The Shallows” will perhaps make shark scientists grimace, but on the other hand, the film teaches a healthy fear of the creatures. It seems this shark would be satiated by the whale carcass and the other surfers. But he either develops a taste for Nancy (insert lascivious joke about the attractive actress here) or he has a vendetta.
Helped by Marco Beltrami’s low-key and low-bass score, Collet-Serra builds suspense by not giving us a good look at the shark for a while. (Once we do get a good look, the special effects crew makes it worth the wait.)
In the initial attack, we see Nancy get blindsided and slam against the reefs. Later, we zoom tightly on her horrified face as she reacts to a drunk thief being ripped apart as he wades in to steal Nancy’s surfboard.
Maximum minimalist horror
“The Shallows” maybe could’ve done more with Nancy’s strained relationship with her family; it’s cliched and simple. And although engrossing (and featuring one moment that made me flinch off my couch), this film is a notch less intense than “The Reef,” another shark film from the past decade that aims for realism.
Although Lively ably carries the film as a salt-of-the-earth (or salt-of-the-water) young woman, the crew is a big reason for “The Shallows’ ” excellence. The makeup department deserves a tip of the sunhat for making Lively look decidedly un-lively by the end.
Collet-Serra and Jaswinski don’t go as deep as they could have with Nancy’s psychological travails or the theme of survival; but then again, they never intend to. For being so minimalist, “The Shallows” maximizes its entertainment value. It will have an esteemed place on shark-movie top 10 lists for decades to come.