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I'll admit it, I'm terrified of drowning. I love being out in the water,
but if it starts getting over my head or I start losing control of my
body even mildly, I tend to freak out. Given those facts, I can't
imagine what I'd do if I were in the situation the characters in this
movie find themselves in... I'd like to think I'd be smarter than they
are, but like I said, I'm TERRIFIED of drowning (I've drowned twice,
once I had actually stopped breathing and had to be revived in the
middle of the river by a friend who was swimming with me). After that,
as you can imagine, seeing the characters in this movie floating, hungry
and exhausted, trying their hardest to get into the boat...it was heart
wrenching.
This movie gets a lot of undeserved flak for being a sequel to a beloved
little indie movie, but the truth is, "Open Water 2" wasn't ever meant
to be "Open Water 2," it was once a little indie movie itself, a movie
called "Adrift" which was based on true events just like "Open Water"
was, but when the studio picked up the movie "Adrift" they fished around
in their collection of movies and found a movie they could tie in with
"Adrift," so it became "Open Water 2: Adrift" in order to try and make
more money by cashing in on the name recognition of the original. If
people don't like this movie, I'm mostly fine with that, it's those who
mock it for the in-name-only sequel status that irritate me, because
it's hard for independent films to get big studios to release them even
as DVDs, and it's not the movie's fault it was packaged as a sequel when
it's not. I just want people to judge the movie on its own merits and be
fair. On its own merits, the movie succeeds very well for me. The acting
by one of the leads is so terrible that it made me want to drown him and
get it over with, but the rest of the cast really aren't that bad.
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The lead character Amy is particularly good, as she has a
crippling fear of the water which is tied in with a painful
childhood memory that comes into play later in the film.
Some of the acting is a little sketchy, but nothing to raise
a red flag over, and any awkwardness is understandable,
since this group of old friends has a lot of history and
secrets running underneath the surface, and they're in a
particularly horrid situation. |
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About their situation. Whereas the original couple in "Open Water" were
adrift at sea without a boat, these people are adrift at sea with their
boat right next to them, but the mental giant of their group jumped in
the water while forgetting to put the ladder down for them to climb back
on. This is a hideously stupid move, I agree, but when later events are
revealed in the film, it makes a tiny bit more sense why he wouldn't
have thought to lower a ladder. As the group
struggles to climb back on board and every attempt is met with failure,
things get more dire. they get cold and start to succumb to exhaustion
and the elements. Honestly, it's a little stupid of them not to send one
of the women on one of their missions to climb back onto the boat, since
the women weigh less and would be less likely to tear the makeshift
ropes, and it's a tad stupid that they didn't try to stand on each
other's shoulders and climb on the boat (I've seen it done, and they
might well have failed, but if I could think of it as an option, the
movie probably should have shown them at least try) but I tried to
ignore all that and focus on what was good about the movie.
There's a lot of tension here. Not only do old rivalries and secrets and
unsaid words start to come to the surface, Amy has brought her daughter
on the sailing trip with her, and she has to hear the baby crying below
deck, unable to reach the infant or comfort her. That must have been
terrible, and the actress does an excellent job of portraying this
trauma, as well as the rapidly increasing fear of being stranded and
dying in the water. When things start looking totally hopeless and the
surviving group members have to make a choice, there is enough human
emotion and pathos to bring tears to my eyes and leave me yelling at the
screen. There are no scary sharks here (probably didn't have the budget
to hire sharks) just the all too real fear of drowning or being betrayed
by friends, and that tension is enough to carry the movie through
whatever rough spots it has.
Whatever problems the movie might have are made up for by the terror of
the situation and the believable acting on display from Amy and her
husband James. Don't judge this movie by its title, give it a chance,
because this is one of the most harrowing film experiences I've ever
had. Highly recommended.
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