The Shallows

A Review on The Shallows ~ 2016

The Shallows is a survival thriller released in 2016 by Columbia Pictures. It is based on a surfer and med-student, Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), who decides to visit a secluded beach in Baja, California after the passing of her mother. Nancy decides to visit this beach in particular because it was the one that her mother visited while she was pregnant with Nancy.

Nancy is currently conflicted about her career in medicine and is considering dropping out because she sees that not everyone can be helped with medicine considering her mother still passed away despite having received treatment. She decided that some seclusion in a place where her mother was many years ago might provide her with some clarity. She gets clarity but not in a way that she would ever have expected.

What makes the beach that Nancy visits a curious attraction is that once the high tide comes in the beach disappears. The local that drives her to the beach heeds her with a warning of caution about surfing alone but Nancy goes ahead regardless. While surfing she meets two other local surfers who leave after some time leaving her to surf on her own. Instead of heading back to shore, she decides to catch one last wave and this is when she stumbles upon the corpse of a humpback whale which also happens to be the feeding grounds of a great white shark that promptly knocks her off her board and bites her thigh.

Nancy is left stranded first on the back of the whale, but after the shark begins to nudge the whale in an attempt to knock her off, she makes a dash for a protruding rock where she spends the night with a seagull that was also injured by the shark. Only 200 yards (180 meters) from the shore, Nancy is limited for movement between the decaying whale, the isolated rock and a nearby life buoy. As if the circling great white was not a threat enough, her leg is still bleeding and the high tide will arrive in only a few hours.

With little time left, Nancy is left with nothing more than her wits to fight for her life in an epic battle for survival against the great white shark.

Traditionally, I tend to steer away from shark films as the sharks are often over-exaggerated which results in them looking fake and that puts me off the film entirely. However, being critical of shark proportions in films, I was satisfied by the size of the great white represented in this film which already makes me give it a thumbs up for realism.

The movie received three awards nominations and won 5th place in the Golden Tomato Awards for “Best Thriller of 2016”. A lot of pressure is placed on an actor/actress when performing in a role where they are basically the sole actor for the greater portion of the movie. This being said, I feel that Blake Lively performed excellently in her role and brought across true fear that made me hold my breath a few times.

The manner in which she outsmarts the shark by using only basic objects on her person and the environment around her is refreshing that proves that with sheer willpower and an “out-of-the-box” attitude, anyone can accomplish the impossible.

One of the best moments in the film for me was while reading the credits. I noticed that the seagull (Sully “Steven” Seagull) is an actor too! It was a funny moment of realization for me and, I have to admit, that seagull has some mad acting skills!

Another refreshing aspect that I discovered in a Cosmopolitan article was that Blake Lively openly admits to having regrets about working out so ruthlessly for the film after the birth of her first child.

She describes her behaviour as shallow (yes, it is a pun) for not wanting to appear for the role with visible cellulite after her pregnancy. She goes on to say that she wished that she had the courage to portray the female body as it is after the birth of a child as there should be nothing ugly about a woman’s body after childbirth.

It is refreshing to see that even celebrities deal with the insecurities that “normal” people do and that gives me great respect for her as an actress. Read the full article at: https://www.cosmopolitanme.com/content/493-blake-lively-kinda-regrets-getting-so-fit-for-the-shallows.

While it might not be one of the best thrillers that I have watched, I would say that it is one of the best shark survival movies that I have seen. Considering that the shark is not the size of a warship, realistic survival mechanisms and skills were used, Blake Lively is awesome and Sully Seagull is a total champ and upcoming star, I give the movie a well deserved four stars and would recommend it as a well constructed modern survival film that should be on your watch list.