An example of adroit film-making

direction from Collet-Serra and, above all, at Lively’s courageous and very committed performance. She plays Nancy Adams, a young woman mourning her mother and questioning her career choice as a medical student. Looking for catharsis, she has come on a surfing trip to a remote Mexican beach that has a special significance for her family. What she hasn’t noticed is the whale carcass in the bay or the shark circling it.

Pitted against the great white, Nancy turns out to be extraordinarily resourceful. She is an expert surfer. Her medical expertise is very useful when it comes to improvising stitches and ensuring that she doesn’t freeze to death. She is only a few hundred metres from shore, but there is an ominous big fin in the water. Getting back there will take huge amounts of courage and ingenuity.

Collet-Serra is relatively sparing in showing the shark. This means that when we do see it in its huge toothsome close-ups, the impact is all the more jarring.

There are obvious nods in the direction of Spielberg in the way the film-makers try to crank up the tension, using music and shots of open water in an ominous fashion. Just occasionally, a little gore is thrown into the mix. Inevitably, the most savage scenes are shot on a GoPro camera. The real surprise about The Shallows is that it provides such depth of characterisation. Nancy refuses to accept the role of victim. Collet-Serra gives a far-fetched story a patina of realism. – The Independent