The film didn’t really work, ultimately, although the set-up was terrifying. You go scuba diving and the boat leaves you behind? What would you do? How would you get out of that situation? How would you survive?
Don’t read this if you haven’t seen it yet and want to – MAJOR spoilers:
They both die. First he dies – he gets bit on the leg by a shark, and eventually dies from loss of blood. She feels his pulse, realizes he’s dead, and lets him go. His body drifts off, and then you see a tug on it from below. Then another tug. And then it is gone. Eaten by the sharks.
Meanwhile – at shore – it has been discovered they are missing. So you see helicopters starting, and a shitload of boats head out – to look for them. You get the sense: Okay, well he’s a goner, but maybe they’ll find her? Maybe there’s some hope.
Cut back to her. She is now alone. You can see the shark fins pretty much circling her now. She gets glimpses of their massive bodies beneath the water, circling, circling. (It’s a terrible terrible image. It taps into that whole primal fear thing that Spielberg expressed so perfectly in Jaws: being afraid of what is down there that we can’t see).
Even though we the audience knows that there are helicopters looking for her now, she doesn’t. So she takes off her scuba mask, the camera pulls back a bit, and she basically disappears from sight. She has not been pulled down by the sharks, no – she swims down to meet them.
A horrible image.
But the film left me a bit tepid.
In my opinion, the film would have had a greater impact if she had actually been spotted by the helicopter and picked up. Not because that would mean it’s a happy ending – far from it. After all, if you go through something like that, you would never be the same again. And her boyfriend’s dead – she watched him get eaten. But I still think that THAT would have been a better ending. Would have let me feel, more, the tragedy and awfulness of it all. A sense that no way could you ever “go back to normal” after something like that.
On a side note, though:
The night-time scene, when there’s a lightning storm, and you only see the two of them intermittently, clutching each other for dear life, and in the flashes of lightning you get brief glimpses of the shark fins all around them in the water – is horrifying.
I knew there was a reason I don’t ever want to scuba dive. However, I gave Tom scuba lessons for his birthday. Should that concern me?? (Especially in light of the “one true love” comment from him this morning??? ha ha haha)
Beth –
All I can say is – judging from this movie, if you ever DO go scuba diving? Make SURE that they get a proper head count. Make SURE that you are counted on their list.
Otherwise, you and Tom will get eaten by sharks, and I will be devastated. No more deck parties? What? Because you’re eaten by sharks? No.
OH MY GOD! A shark nibbled my name!! It only says “ju”!! By the way, I just got off the phone with Jen DeFeo who said, “Oh, Leo and I watched Open Water last night and were VERY disappointed.” I screamed, “SO WAS SHEILA!!” Leo was yelling in the background that great minds think alike.
I am an experienced diver and can assure you that thought the movie is somewhat realistic – it is highly unlikely that an incident like that would occur. I dive every day and LOVE it!!!!!!
That final image, with her willingly going under water, just haunted me for a couple days after I watched the movie. I found it terribly depressing and I couldn’t quite get it out of my head.
It was strange, actually, because I didn’t feel like it was a great movie. I didn’t feel like it was a great ending. Something about the whole thing left me bothered and I had the distinct thought that the movie, overall, was mediocre.
Yet, it completely got under my skin, which generally means it’s not a mediocre movie. At least, not to me. So I don’t know what that’s about.
Still get a little depressed thinking about, which is strange because I didn’t take to the characters all that much. I guess the general horror of the whole situation is what gets to me.