A friend of mine is adamant about never going into the ocean, since there are many large and scary things out there that only want to kill you straight dead. The Shallows is a new thriller that was made for my friend.  It takes those fears, opens them up, shakes ’em out, pokes them with a few pointy sticks, and then says, “Yep. You’re right. They’re gonna kill you.”

Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) plays Nancy, a young woman taking a break from medical school to go surf and explore the remote beach where her deceased mother seemed to be happiest, when she was newly pregnant and the world was magical and cancer-free.  She surfs a bit, gliding alongside the two other flirtatious guys out on the waves.  There are some beautiful shots of the waves and the surfers, setting us up for the tense and suspenseful actions of later on. After a while, Nancy takes a break and video chats with her younger sister and her father (and the wifi on the beach comes from…where?). We get a little background on the family dynamics, and then it’s out to the ocean once more.

The other two surfers head on in, warning her not to stay out too long. It’s okay, she’s just going to ride a few more, than be done. Just as the guys finish packing up their Jeep and start driving out, Nancy is bit by a shark.  A big nasty bite by a big nasty shark. She is all alone, a couple hundred yards from shore, bleeding into the inadvertent feeding grounds of a great white. The sun is going down and the tide is coming in.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) takes great delight in ramping up the tension as Nancy’s predicament grows ever more dire. Much of the time he keeps the camera at water level, giving us not much more than a glimpse of the dark water below. At other times we’re completely submerged, panicked, searching the backgrounds in vain for the gliding white death as Nancy scrambles back up on her tiny little rock.

The (presumably) CGI shark looks realistic and scary and physically there in the environment. It has a heft and weight that many similar creatures in similar movies lack. It is vicious and unrelenting in its hunger.

The movie looks gorgeous. There are luxurious slow-motion shots of waves curling over and crashing into the ocean floor, slow-motion surfers shooting the tube, slow-motion Nancy pulling on her wetsuit, slow-motion shark attacks (okay, maybe Collet-Serra relies on slow-motion a bit too much, but it all works together to create a  hypnotic narrative). This might not be the best movie about a killer shark ever made (I think we all know what that movie might be), but it is a very solid thriller that takes you on a wild roller coaster ride. Uncle Mike sez check it out!