Movie Review: The Shallows

I don't usually take shark movies seriously, but The Shallows was just wickedly good. The tight narrative was simple, but managed to give the film some sense of urgency creating a consistent pacing and the the tension building progressively was incredibly impressive. I also thought the decision to have a bit of a background about the lead character was good as it held my interest and allowed me to connect with her. That, of course, worked mostly with Blake Lively's superb performance. She had a considerable charm and surprisingly convincing acting chops to carry the entire film by herself. I thought she gave the performance of her life after she single handedly demonstrated her great acting range as she took me through a wide variety of emotions from calm, to desperate, to terrified. The Shallows wasn't a game changer by any means, but it did exactly what it needed to do, and that's a shark movie I never knew that I needed. 8.5