The Shallows (15)

***

Dir: Jaume Collet-Serra

With: Blake Lively, Brett Cullen, Óscar Jaenada

Runtime: 86 minutes

ON behalf of the movie industry I would like to apologise to sharks everywhere. Not that many of them will be reading this; they are all too busy swimming as fast as they can away from their cinema image as bloodthirsty predators who never saw a pair of legs dangling below the surface that they didn’t want to grab. Jaws, Shark Attack, Open Water, Deep Blue Sea, Great White, Hammerhead, and who could forget Jurassic Shark - countless films have combined to give these magnificent, endangered, intelligent marvels of evolution a seriously bad rep.

So, sorry about that. I am afraid, however, that The Shallows is not going to do the finned community any favours. A cleverly executed, tension-packed thrill ride that combines the hunting of humans with the sport of gazing at a beautiful woman in skin-tight rubber, Jaume Collet-Serra’s thriller is likely to prove too much of a temptation to those who might otherwise think the poor auld shark has suffered enough from Steven Spielberg, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and co.

The opening scenes demonstrate the sheer confidence the director of Non-Stop and Orphan has in his ability to keep the audience hooked. A boy is strolling along a beach in Mexico when he comes across a video camera. Playing the footage, the child, and the audience, think they have a handle on what has happened previously. So how can the picture possibly build tension from here?

Adroitly is the answer to that. From this point Collet-Serra cuts to the arrival of a young American woman from Texas who is making something of a pilgrimage to the beach. Yes, it’s an idyllic spot and she is a surfer, but it is also where her mother once found peace and contentment. Nancy (Blake Lively) could do with some of that herself.

As she gets ready to take her chances with the waves, Collet-Serra chances his arm with lots of long, lingering shots of Nancy’s athletic, beach-ready body. Is this a thriller or an ad for racy swimwear? It’s touch and go at several points. Also signalling his intention to pull in the young, easily distracted crowd, Collet-Serra deploys lots of visual tricks, like showing text messages on the screen. It is when the action moves to the water, however, that he and his team really show their skills, especially in photography.

Over the course of a blissfully short 86 minutes, Collet-Serra has to put his heroine in peril and keep us watching while she tries to get out of danger. Save for a few passing characters, including a bird, it is just Lively, a nearby beach, and whatever is lurking in that water.

Now, we could start all sorts of theories running here about what The Shallows is trying to convey. An ecological message? A political one (this is Mexico, she’s a well-to do American)? Something feminist (if one ignores the swimsuit shots)? My money is on none of the above. Collet-Serra just wants to give the audience a grand old fright, then another, then another, the same way as Spielberg did all those years ago.

Even though the film is unfashionably short, he loses his grip somewhat towards the end with twists and turns that will have you scratching your head afterwards. He is not above a little corniness, either, and he can be less than subtle when it comes to signalling his character’s motivations.

As long as you are in the mood for a pure popcorn summer movie none of this matters very much. This is a picture that shows what a clever director can do with not much in the way of plot but plenty of imagination. Kudos must go, too, to Lively (The Town, TV’s Gossip Girl), who gives her character true grit, all the while toning down the more obvious ploys of the director. She is no slouch in the action scenes, either, throwing herself into the fray like Indiana Jones in a wetsuit. So go on in - the water is lovely. Just mind how you go.