Movie: "Open Water"

[Skybird]

Yesterday, German TV showed the movie "Open Water", a film about a couple doing a dive in deep blue water that is forgotten and left behind by their boat and then find themselves in "open water".

I first thought it is no movie that would be rated as better than "mediocre", and only watched it with half an eye at best, but then concentrating on it more and more. Now I find myself going back to it all night and all day long. It has no happy end, and that bfact alone came as a kick in the stomach, at least for me, and very much out of the blue, since you are used to see happy endings in movies these days, and strong heroes, especially in desaster movies, and the movie seemed to deliver that happy end, too, although late. The way the final end is realized and put into scene, the sudden, silent acceptance of the inevatible, like a candle light being blown out, calm and unspectacular, the changing of the roles who is the stronger of those two people, and the strange two-split path of the story - the couple in the water, talking and doing, and the world around them just moving on with it's actions, without comment, without dialogue, without any action that would create a bridge between this very action and the audience, is disturbing, somehow.

Certainly no yelling and loud shouting horror, but a silent, unspectacular nightmare unfolding, put into pictures in a very different way than the usual mainstream movies. Give it a try if you have the chance, but watch until the end. In the beginning I did not like the protagonists - but in the end I was all with them, and the more i think of them, the more I realise how believable their relation and their psychological reactions have been illustrated. Disturbing movie, really.

Somehow, almost a meditation about life, and dying.

Bad reviews I think tell more about the action-expectations of the reviewers, than they tell something about the features of this movie. Some people simply are not satisfied if it is not constantly boom-boom-bang-bang, and cannot appreciate less noisy qualities. Such simpletons should avoid this film. Rated as "independant movie", it was done with a mini budget, and handheld digicams (which you only realise in the sometimes shaky camera moves, but not in picture quality, which is brilliant). Don't judge this film by the scale for Hollywood films. Many people complained about faults in the script, and contradictions, but I disagree and think the helplessness the film leaves the audience in behind is intentional. And although it comes in a non-sensational way, the ending scenes you will remember, believe me. Touching, without becoming sentimental. For me, "Open Water" is a secret classic. as one british amazon-customer wrote: adjust your expecations, and you will love this film.