Open Water

Year: 2003 Rating: R Overall Evaluation: 6.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 6.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 3.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated R for language and some nudity. The nudity is full frontal (female) and completely without usefulness to the plot. Lots of cussing - although most of it is quite understandable.

Story

A couple is on vacation from a hectic life of high stress work and go on a deep sea dive. They are left by the guides on accident and are left drifting on an ocean current where they face various trials not the least of which is a continual run-in with sharks.

NOTE: The film is based on true events. It is based on Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, American tourists left by a dive boat in Australia in 1998. They later found what is believed to be Eileen Lonergan's wetsuit. It was ripped in the back, and they assumed that she was attacked by a shark. Beyond this is only speculation.

[SPOILER WARNING!]

By the end of the film the shark attacks have turned ugly. The guy eventually dies from his wound and his body is eaten by sharks. In the end the woman gives up, removes her gear, and allows herself to drown rather than face a similar fate.

Suppositions

The story is absolutely believable, although the acting / filming made it a little less realistic. The value of living life is stressed.

Significance

One message of the film is that there is more to life than worldly goods. That's great. However, the film offers only higher goods found in this world (family). Once the family is gone, what's the point? The film cannot answer this because it lacks an eternal perspective. When life is seen as everlasting, this part is only a staging area for the next. It is an incredibly important one - no doubt, for it determines the course of the next. However, if one only lives for this stage then they will lose all the rest. This movie is a good example of what happens when one lacks this critical view. The rescuers appear to be on their way just before the woman gives in, but it is unclear if we are supposed to think they are close to actually finding her. Thus the overall message is difficult to grasp although giving in to despair makes it a tragedy in the classic sense.