Four stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity, bloody peril, brief gore and fleeting profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.24.16
Solo turns are demanding even for
accomplished performers, and for the obvious reason: It’s not easy to emote in
a vacuum. Actors draw a lot of energy from the dynamic shared with co-stars;
remove the rhythm established with such a bond, and the challenge increases
exponentially.
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| She may be injured — bitten by a shark, stung by numerous jellyfish, battered by undersea rocks — but Nancy (Blake Lively) is not one to surrender in despair. One way or another, she's determined to make it back to shore ... even though she knows, intellectually, that she can't hope to out-swim her watchful attacker. |
Several examples leap to mind:
Tom Hanks, in Cast Away; Robert
Redford, in All Is Lost; and — for
much of the film — Leonardo DiCaprio, in The Revenant. Perhaps not coincidentally, all are survival dramas.
To their company we now add Blake
Lively, in The Shallows. And while I
wouldn’t presume to equate her acting chops with the three individuals cited
above, she nonetheless delivers a credible, persuasive portrayal of a
resourceful, level-headed woman who does her best to overcome a horrific
situation.
Because, yes, this is another
survival drama.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra’s
tidy little thriller can be summed up in three words: Woman vs. shark. But
scripter Anthony Jaswinski finds increasingly clever ways to expand upon that
simple premise, building suspense via the careful establishment of character
and detail. Jaswinski, bless him, obviously understands the dramatic principle
of Chekhov’s gun: If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging
on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.
The Shallows is constructed very much in the
style of a taut three-act play: the deceptively calm introduction; the
explosion of danger, and explicit disclosure of overwhelming odds; and,
finally, the struggle. Given that structure, Jaswinski deftly inserts trivial
and incidental first-act details that later prove important.
I like smart scripts, and this is a smart script.
We meet Nancy Adams (Lively) as a
passenger being driven to an isolated beach somewhere along the Mexican coast
(actually Lord Howe Island, approximately 600 nautical miles east of Sydney,
Australia). As we gradually learn, via brief flashbacks and phone calls, she’s
making a cathartic pilgrimage of sorts, to the place where family lore says she
was conceived.
Nancy is a skilled surfer; so was
her mother, in her day. Nancy’s driver, Carlos (Óscar Jaenada), doesn’t quite
believe any of this saga, but he recognizes that the trip is nonetheless important
to this perky American. Their skillfully sketched conversation, lasting only a
few minutes, tells us everything we need to know about Nancy. Jaswinski’s
dialog is economical; the casual, spontaneous bond between Nancy and Carlos is well
developed by the two actors. It feels genuine.
