The Shallows is a movie that upon reflection of its first hour is flawless, and in the last twenty-six minutes only seems to slightly lose enjoyment by virtue of contrivance. It’s the type of excellent little action thriller that actually thrills and scares, but also doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you’ve seen the trailer of The Shallows you’ll know that it mainly focusses on Blake Lively as a med student who gets caught on a rock outcropping a few hundred yards from shore after being bitten by a shark. It’s short, concise, and incredibly well-conceived stuff. From that you’ll probably guess that Lively is well cast, and she as a personality is truly perfect for this type of movie. I will give credence to how she is blatantly objectified near the beginning of the film aka slow motion camera gliding along her body, but it’s almost a big middle finger to the audience in that way. Let me explain. The true greatness of The Shallows is how the film uses the cultural significance of presenting such a familiar situation, shot verbatim to how shark movies are shot while infusing it with a Sucker Punch level of subversion. The fact is the objectifying of Mrs. Lively might have actually had a purpose in calling out how violence is so often placed so close to sexuality. This has become a huge problem in modern society as the growing violence of sexuality on the internet has become more and more acceptable. The film even hangs a marker on such sexuality by having Mrs. Lively wear a black jacket over herself most of the time, and not reveal the elements of sexuality too much. When she finally does so it’s to help stitch herself up, therefore, revealing a strength in such sexuality. But that’s not the subversion that I am talking about The combination of sexuality and violence usually comes with the idea that the women is being made to submit. The fact that the film will draw a certain audience in like that and then watch as Lively ultimately drags herself out of such a position to take control is wonderfully sly, and the very 90’s action movie way of going about killing the shark only prompts the screaming of “Awesome.” The film’s only flaw only comes in the fact that the more it contrives ways for Lively to escape the shark, the more tired the movie seems to get. That doesn’t mean such contrivances aren’t interesting. At one point the camera shows the shark swimming through water that reflects purple and blue only. I immediately noticed that it must be laced with oil, but this had come almost out of nowhere. I won’t spoil the oil's use because that is actually an awesome plot point of the movie, but the oil showing up with no explanation prompts how the movie is actually making a slight bit of commentary, almost getting up in the face of everyone in the audience and screaming, “You don’t think there’s oil in the water? Well, there is. A lot of it. Your argument for our movie being contrived is invalid.” That might be a little far fetched but it serves the purpose of making the audience think in the middle of a shark movie. The Shallows is a nerve-wracking ride even if you don’t catch onto the layers under its surface (ha ha). This may turn out to be one of the better thrillers of the year. 9 out of 10
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |