On the beat
Olivia Harris 47 Metres Down (M) 89 mins DEPENDING on your viewpoint you can thank or blame The Shallows for this latest Hollywood foray into shark-infested waters. Originally set for a straight-tostreaming demise, English-born writer-director Johannes Roberts’ aquatic horror was rescued from Davy Jones’ Locker (if not Putlocker) by no less than the Weinstein Brothers.
With Blake Lively proving there was still life in the old ‘‘woman vs shark tale’’ this time last year, the pair clearly thought this ultra low-budget tale would be a nice little earner, especially since it contained not one, but two bikini-clad female protagonists. They would have been further buoyed by the resurgence of their leading lady Mandy Moore thanks to her role on the network drama du jour This is Us.
The end result, though, is something of an unsubtle disappointment. Yes, while 47 Metres Down is a movie that begins with a clever visual parody of blockbuster granddaddy Jaws and ends with a surprisingly satisfying rug-pull (although one blatantly stolen from a far superior 2005 horror), the middle 85-minutes drifts and then drowns in a sea of predictable action beats and perfunctory dialogue.
At least four times we’re warned about the potential effects of nitrogen bubbles on the human anatomy, just so it’s hammered home that we know it’s going to be a vital plot point.
Meanwhile, doubling up on the girl power actually proves to be detrimental to the film. The story improves markedly once Lisa (Moore) manages to become separated from best buddy Kate (Claire Holt) after they’ve been coerced by their new Mexican mates into sampling a less than OSH-compliant dive operation and their cage plummets the requisite 154.2 feet to the lessthan-human-friendly ocean floor. As she has proven before in the likes of A Walk to Remember, Moore is an underrated actress who can hold an audience’s attention.
However, her ticking clock here is less circling apex predator and more diminishing air, one of many scientific anomalies and inaccuracies likely to give any right thinking person a severe case of the bends.
Roberts ( The Other Side of the Door) deserves kudos for his visual invention, underwater footage (shot in a tank in Essex of all places) and ability to ratchet up the tension (especially via point-of-view shots), but he and co-writer Ernest Riera definitely need to work on their tin-eared dialogue, which really begins to grate by the hour mark.
By the end you’ll be cheering for the surprisingly under-utilised sharks and marvel even more at just how good The Shallows really was in comparison. – James Croot ● 47 Metres Down (M) opens in select cinemas on Thursday.