The Shallows

After a run of palpably mediocre thrillers, Jaume Collet-Serra bounces back with an erratic yet often thoroughly engrossing shark movie that’s more engrossing than most similarly-themed efforts (including, impressively enough, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws). The narrative, which follows Blake Lively’s Nancy as she’s stalked by a vicious shark near an isolated beach, does get off to a slow and somewhat underwhelming start, as Collet-Serra employs an overly lackadaisical pace that’s compounded by scripter Anthony Jaswinski’s emphasis on Nancy’s solo, survival-oriented antics. The less-than-captivating vibe of the movie’s first half is due mostly to Lively’s difficulties at transforming her character into a wholly sympathetic figure, as the actress, who is admittedly quite good here, doesn’t quite possess the charisma required to anchor an entirely picture by herself. It’s a complaint that effectively becomes moot as time progresses, with The Shallows‘ shift from watchable to enthralling coming as Nancy begins actively looking for a way out of her increasingly perilous situation (ie she stops just surviving past a certain point). Collet-Serra’s decision to amp up the shark action doesn’t hurt either, of course, and it’s hard to deny that the film’s momentum builds steadily as it barrels towards its intense, exciting finale – with the end result a solid effort from a filmmaker who’s been floundering as of late.

*** out of ****