Open Water Review

Written by: Moviemaven

I don't mind admitting that this film grabbed me by the flippers and would not let go. Opinions of this one seem to go all over the place, but I found it truly, deeply scary. Daniel and Susan are headed out to do a little island scuba diving on a much needed vacation. They both work like fiends and tend to get on each other's nerves a bit. They need some together time to relax and decompress ;). But a series of mistakes and miscalculations leads to the poor couple being left behind in the wide open sea all alone. And there are sharks.

This is where the opinions seem to diverge. Some people have difficulty watching two people float in an ocean for over an hour. But it was much more than that. We are taken on a fantastic ride through every emotion ranging from fear to rage. We get a glimpse of what it is like to feel hopeless and out of control.

I was lucky enough to be with an audience that behaved themselves so I could get into it. And I will tell you that I cried. I wasn't sad or laughing too hard. I was so scared that I cried. Sometimes there is so much emotion that it has nowhere else to go. Surely everyone won't experience what I did and I will probably be defending that response for the rest of my life, but I don't care. This film was not about the horrors of shark attack as much as it was about desperation and coming to the realization that help is NOT on the way. That, kids, is scary as Hell.