Open Water [2003] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

I expected a lot from Open Water, and it held up my expectation well. A short (79 minutes) tiny thriller shot with digital camera about a story of two persons alone in the sea is obviously a difficult concept to deal with. Yet, this movie certainly beats all the big budget Hollywood craps I'd seen this summer (including Exorcist: The Beginning and AvP), with its clarity, originality and lyricism. Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan) are a bored and workaholic couple who will bring their cellphone and laptop on a vacation. They even fail to perform sex because Susan is too tired (or bored? ) However, as they are abandoned in the ocean 15 miles from the shore by their diving team, they slowly realize the importance of each other, and eventually that they truly love each other. The two actors act just enough to bring out the intensity the story needs. They never overact or romanticize their roles, instead they deliver their lines like a normal couple, only added to the realism of the movie. The digital camera was first quite annoying, but as the story slowly unfolded itself, the low quality images, instead of what people comment that they bring realism to the movie, were used lyrically to express more complex emotions. One clear example is the overlapping scenes of the ocean accompanied by a piece of sacred music. Yet the most chilling moment belongs to the night scene in which we are all in the dark, which only occasionally lit by the lightning followed by the thundering. An effective and clever use of the limited resource. Overalls, Open Water is a good movie that is able to deliver the thrill, but not without its faults: after the premise, the movie struggles a hard time to generate tension when nothing much is happening in the sea; the last scene shown as the credit rolls is not really necessary. Apart from these small things, I enjoy this movie and highly recommend it.