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Open Water - 8/6/04 - R - 79m
Blanchard Ryan - Susan
Daniel Travis - Daniel
Saul Stein - Seth
Director: Chris Kentis
Written by: Chris Kentis
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Official
Website
LYN
Nutshell: This couple goes on vacation to do some scuba diving and when they surface past the time that they we allotted, they find themselves stranded in the middle of the ocean without a ride. Boo-hoo.
That’s pretty much it, for the whole movie. It’s a story based on real-life divers Tom and Eileen Lonergan who basically did the same as the “Nutshell” says. And of course they were never heard from again, presumably they were eaten by sharks, or just simply drowned. See that’s the thing, no one knows for sure (except of course Tom and Eileen), so everything that happened since the last time anyone from the boat saw them is pretty much conjecture. Which reminds me of the film “The Perfect Storm”, same basic premise (I mean the conjecture part), after the last ship-to-ship contact, no one knows what happened, other than the boat never came home. But, if they were just simply capsized and sunk after the first wave of the storm, it doesn’t make for very entertaining theater does it?
So why go see it then? Ah good question…see here’s the rub. Immediately after the release of “Jaws”, I became fascinated with sharks. I read everything I could get my hands on about them. Thus began my fear of going in the ocean. An irrational fear, beings that New Jersey doesn’t really have the temporal waters for that kind of stuff, not to say it couldn’t happen, but it’s highly unlikely, but it was my fear just the same…so leave alone. Anyway, I’ve since conquered my phobia, but only to the point of allowing myself to venture in no farther than I can stand. I know, baby steps, but it was still progress…so mind your business. Meanwhile back to the point, I have yet to overcome my fear of open water, without of course the boat or the plane I was riding or flying in. Being stranded out in all that water, just waiting for that first bump…chilling.
So, I went to see this film with all this in mind and to face my fears in a sense, cause I ain’t throwing myself into open water as therapy (see “Baby Steps” above). But alas, this wasn’t therapeutic; it was torturously boring instead. The entire film looked as if it were a poorly made home movie. The brief story preceding the scuba trip seemed out of place. The characters were so tediously unfascinating that I could hardly wait for the sharks to show up and end the film.
After this you’d think I’d have a fear of potentially seeing bad movies too… 
Lyn
