With the summer in full swing, some days are just too hot to do anything outside. One thing I like to do in the summertime is go to the movies. I recently saw The Shallows with Blake Lively. I had mixed feelings coming into the movie. On one hand, the movie has a very good plot where a woman is stranded in the ocean while being hunted by a shark. On the other hand, many people were wondering how good the movie will be since the movie only has one character that actually talks. Not to mention that people often criticize Blake Lively that she is only good for TV shows and is not a movie star.
All that being said, this movie lives up to the hype. Excellent character development and never a dull moment. The movie focuses entirely on Lively's character, Nancy. She travels to Mexico in order to go surfing. She arrives at a secluded area that has a beautiful scenery. She claims that she chose this place because her mom took her there when she was pregnant with her. Now she comes to this beach because she is trying to cope with the fact that her mother passed away from a long battle with cancer.
The thing about the character development is that Lively does a great job making us believe that she is at a crossroad in her life. The audience wants her to find her way. I would also like to point out that they never mention the name of the beach or where exactly in Mexico she is. I don't know why this bothered me because I guess it added to the mystery of the movie.
The camera work in this movie was outstanding, in my opinion. The underwater shots took the cake because the audience is anticipating the shark but most of the time the camera work is just a tease to get the adrenaline pumping. Also, focusing on details that seem unimportant at the time but come huge later on in the movie was another work that I found extremely satisfying.
This movie is also very realistic. There are stories about people being attacked by sharks and how they survived. Heck, this movie came out the Friday before Shark Week started on the Discovery Channel (Coincidence, I think not).
All in all, the movie is very good. I give a lot of credit to Lively. Being able to perform under the circumstances is remarkable. She is definitely in the category of Tom Hanks and Will Smith as actors who can pull off being by themselves throughout the entire movie. I think that this movie will jumpstart her movie career. Out of four stars, I give this movie three stars only because the beginning was a slow start.
