Nancy Adams (Blake Lively, Gossip Girl) is a medical student and surfer from Texas who has set off for a hidden beach in Mexico, discovered many years before by her recently deceased mother when she found out she was pregnant with Nancy. It's all about reconnecting with her mother, even though she leaves behind in Texas a beloved younger sister named Chloe (Sedona Legge) and her father (Brett Cullen), whom she has shut out since her mother's death. Nancy's an adept surfer and is mesmerized by the sparkling beach with its swelling waves when she arrives, after hitching a ride with a local man named Carlos (Óscar Jaenada) when her friend who was supposed to join her on this odyssey abandons her to nurse a hangover.
Before long, she is in the water and surfing to her heart's content. While out there, she meets two local surfers and they surf a bit together, but Nancy is ultimately there for alone time. Then the unthinkable happens - a great white looms out of a giant wave and attacks her, gravely injuring her leg in the process. She is able to scramble to safety on a rock, but she soon realizes that she has accidentally moved into the shark's feeding territory when she spies a dying whale that was a previous victim of the shark.
As Nancy takes stock of her situation, she patches herself up the best she can, only to realize that she is only some 200 yards from shore, but the shark is circling and she can't make the swim. While The Shallows could have easily become one of those whining films about the stranded and wounded girl, instead it portrays a powerful female, one not willing to simply give up and die, and so she must come up with a plan if she has any hope of survival.
The Shallows is an intense experience, but also one with spectacularly beautiful imagery, made only more glorious on Blu-ray. Although the shark was a mix of CG and practical, it never looked fake and was pretty damned terrifying. Personally, I've never really thought of Blake Lively as a fantastic actress, but she does a commendable job in her performance and is very believable in the role. Although there are a few other folks in the film, it's pretty much just her versus the great white and that's just fine.
Special features include a handful of deleted scenes and featurettes on building the killer shark, finding the perfect hidden beach spot, the challenges of shooting a film on the open water, and finally, one on the truth behind shark attacks. All are enjoyable to watch and gave me a little bit of extra insight into the film and sharks in general.
If you enjoy a nail-biting thriller that takes place on the water, watch The Shallows and skip drivel like In the Deep and Open Water. You won't be sorry, but you might not set foot in the water for a while...
