Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis (II), Saul Stein

8 out of 10

Is Open Water not much more than a Reader's Digest "Drama in Real Life?" Yes, that's probably fair. Does it look like crap (well, the Sundance version that I saw did)? Yes, absolutely. Is the acting at some times painful? The direction static? The palette singular? Yes, yes, and yes.

Does it contain one of the most memorable scenes of this year, or any other? No question. Is it the kind of film that you relay to your brother-in-law at a family barbeque because you're still slightly taken aback by what you saw? Absolutely. Will you recall it in the ensuing years over the art-house titles that will be lauded over it on top ten lists? More than likely.

This small film, made for a pittance by the husband and wife filmmaking team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, is, much like The Blair Witch Project a visceral experience, a primal odyssey about fear -- fear of being lost, fear of losing a loved one, fear of being eaten.

The story is simple and compact: a squabbling couple (Blanchard Ryan, the stronger of the acting duo, as the wife, and Daniel Travis as the slightly egotistical husband) go to the Caribbean for a vacation and find that their scuba diving tour boat has returned to port without them, leaving them to drift out to sea. As the two bicker about their options, their situation becomes more dire as the sky grows darker and the waters around them become more active. They've both been wounded and their thrashing and bleeding attracts sharks. Lots of sharks.

As a horror film, Open Water succeeds by investing its time on the best aspects of people in a life-and-death situation, instead of dwelling on open wounds or the usual staples of the genre -- the profane, disgusting, and sick. One pitch-black nighttime scene, where the pair can only see the sharks around them when a nearby storm unleashes its lightning, reinvigorates the old "dark and stormy night" cliché, presumed dead for decades, to spectacular effect. The film also succeeds by refusing to moralize while still including the message to all those extreme sportsters out there: we are incredibly fragile and defenseless creatures.

The digital video is both a blessing and a curse. It grants an immediacy and intimacy in this particular setting, as if you're watching the work of some mute third leg of the party, who happens to be along on the trip with a home video camera. The print I saw had the same resolution and pixilation issues of DV, but only in the earlier establishing scenes of the couple in their port of departure.

It's really irrelevant, however. Open Water is a reminder that movies do not have to be tethered to big stars, expensive special effects (in fact, it succeeds largely because we know those sharks aren't generated in Marin County), or even great film stock to achieve something more. It's a great film because it's a great story, well-edited and persuasively told, about the will to survive and the dignity of the human spirit.