Open Water (2003)
Genre: Drama / Horror
Duration: 79 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Chris Kentis
Stars: Blanchard Ryan, Saul Stein and Daniel Travis
IMDb score:
5,8 (58.905)
Releasedate: 26 October 2003
Open Water plot
"Scream all you want."
Susan and Daniel are happily married and hope to spend a nice vacation in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the fun quickly ends when they are accidentally left in the middle of the ocean after their dive trip. They soon panic, not realizing that sharks are lurking.
Reviews & comments
Collins
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- 7346 messages
- 4345 votes
Right from the start it is made clear to the viewer that the events in the film are based on truth. The film depicts the intense nightmare of two characters who have been left behind in the middle of the sea due to a misunderstanding, abandoned and impotent.
Director Chris Kentis uses a tight, close-to-the-skin technique for the registration, which he intersects with panoramic shots of the open sea. The viewer is thus very directly confronted with the suffering that befalls both protagonists. The square meter technique has an oppressive effect. The panorama shots also have that effect. They confront the viewer with the vast sea and show the insignificance and impotence of man in the midst of that enormous mass of water. A situation he has no control over. The level of truth (always the question of how high that level is of course) gives the story some extra exciting charge.
The film uses a clear chronological order of events. Starts with small subdued scenes that almost feel cozy. Sometimes even funny. Scenes in which the duped characters bicker among themselves and the seriousness of the situation does not yet penetrate. Naturally, the atmosphere changes quickly, the hopelessness sets in, native passers-by pass by and the film zooms in nicely on the physical and psychological degeneration that the characters go through.
Excellent acting by both characters. Two unknown actors who credibly give shape to the misery and powerlessness of their situation. It was easy for me to place myself in their misfortune.
Open Water shows that a film can be exciting without the use of supernatural phenomena, liters of blood and excessive effects. All you need is a good story, designed with tight and atmospheric camera work and played by two excellent actors. Et voilà!
Translated from Dutch · View original
UmbraVitae
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- 4371 messages
- 4079 votes
What a mistake...you drop 2 people in the open sea, open water hehe...float around a bit...the sharks are an afterthought...zero tension...saviors too late...bye bye...en that's the only positive thing, that they won't be saved for once. That some find this nerve-wracking, a great mystery to me...literally nougat bolle happens and an aquarium is even more fascinating to stare at 
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
Nice and grim without the expected happy ending, and such a surprise is always welcome. Despite the low-budget approach, it all looks pretty realistic, and there's a sort of inevitability to it that gave me the chills from time to time while watching it. And for those who don't have enough of the bare plot, there is still the perspective of Roger Ebert: "The movie is about what a slender thread supports our conviction that our lives have importance and make sense. We need that conviction in order to live at all, and when it is irreversibly taken away from us, what a terrible fate to be left alive to know it."
Translated from Dutch · View original
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