Collet-Serra has delivered some pretty enjoyable films (Non-Stop, Run All Night, Unknown, Goal II) - not necessarily great, but fun nonetheless. He continues that with The Shallows.
Blake Lively stars as an everyday girl on a solo trip of self discovery. She travels to a secluded beach to surf - a place her mum had travelled to in her youth. The story and runtime is barebones, but what we get is a reasonably paced and intense 80 mins of girl vs shark.
The location is beautiful, the cinematography often stunning, with some impressive scenes of Lively in the water. I had a little gripe with the occasionally dodgy CGI surfing scenes (that wasn't Lively surfing?) but the actual shark is very well done.
What makes this work is Lively's performance and the fact this film is not a straight up gore fest with flashy death scenes. The scenes successfully provide dread and really put you in the film, stranded with Lively - you feel her anguish and desperation. Of course, this is a movie with a great white shark being a menace, so there is gore, but it is not like you would expect. It is the anticipation that gets you, not the ripped flesh.
The film occasionally loses pace, but for the most part it is edge of your seat cinema. Some minor grips aside, this is an efficient thriller.
3.5/5
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