Film: The Shallows
Cast: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Angelo Josue Lozano Corzo, Brett Cullen
Director: Jaime Collett-Serra
Empathising with the harrowing experiences of the principal character of this tense and gripping survival drama, I am wracked by the sight of a desperate blonde and beautiful human grappling against heavily weighed odds. Unbidden the thought came to me: if white supremacists could ever feel the same way about non-whites in distress? And I thought too, of Ernest Hemingway’s novella, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ which celebrates the timeless theme of courage in the face of defeat and personal victory earned from loss.
Only now, instead of a grizzled Cuban seafarer and his prize catch, we watch a young woman surfer battle a great, white shark. Like Hemingway’s protagonist though, the heroine of The Shallows Nancy (Blake Lively, terrific) is struggling with angst. From video flashbacks we learn Nancy’s mother was felled by cancer as a result of which she dropped out of medical school and headed to Mexico looking for the perfect, secret beach.
What’s the name of this beach, she asks the genial Mexican who gives her a lift to the secluded spot. She’s none the wiser when he drives away. In the blue waters, she meets with a pair of fellow surfers. Beautifully shot sequences of mind-blowing surfing follow. But we already know what’s in store for the poor surfers. Even so we are shocked, unnerved by the ferocity of the shark as it lunges at its hapless prey. Intriguingly, this predator prefers humans to dead whales and dolphins.
No prizes for guessing,this smartly-scripted, deftly-directed movie is all about bravery and courage.
