This is because you peed and slapped the water.

The Movie: Open Water, directed by Chris Kentis
Recommendation: Me
Reason: I am a fan of shark movies, but scared of sharks.

Open Water's an interesting indie movie that nabbed a few headlines when it was released due to the camerawork and the story it told. In the grand tradition of the Blair Witch Project (which it was very frequently compared to), it was apparently shot with an unsteadied, mid-quality video camera. The result was a very organic feel, as though the camera was a third participant in the proceedings. I think this was the right choice to make, especially for a film based on a true story, but I'm not sure it was entirely used to its fullest potential. The camerawork did engender an uncomfortable feeling of 'I should do something', but at the same time I think it detracted somewhat from the actors performance.

And speaking of that. They had their moments. Once more, to reference Blair Witch, the characters shared the first names of the actors. Their last names were sly nods to Jaws. They were moderately good, but when you're relying on your lead actors to carry a film like this, they need to be solid. Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis weren't. When they were good, they were very very good, but when they were bad...well, I didn't stop laughing for a few minutes after Susan screeched "I wanted to go skiing!".

The story was solid, written around the possible events of the story that the movie was based on. The entire tale is conjecture, but the things that happened were plausible. If the actors had been able to keep up a little better, this could've ranked right up there with Jaws.

-85/365 down, 280/365 to go