Thus, experienced skipper Luke brings along his ex-girlfriend, another couple and one of his fishing buddies on an open sea cruise to visit the sights around a stretch the titular coral, presumably to re-ignite the old flame. The gorgeous weather, beautiful tropical islands and national geographic quality cinematography seems to bode well for Luke's chances, until, in an abrupt and tense microsecond, his ship is wrecked, dinghy snarled and not many options. The two couples venture out to sea, with the singleton, a fisherman staying behind with a lone flare and his knowledge of just how many sharks are out there. Fear keeps him locked on the smallest bit of floating fibreglass keel.
Setting out on the journey into the unknown with a couple styrofoam wakeboards, snorkeling goggles, a single bottle of fresh water and a lot of hand-wringing over potential sharks in the water, maybe the comparison of a long arduous journey with plenty of boring stretched punctuated with joy and fear is not a bad comparison to a long term relationship. One of the men comments at the start of the journey that perhaps the best way to mentally overcome all the work (of swimming) is to think of sex, hell, even foreplay.
The nuts and bolts of the film are more like a slasher film, with the two couples being harried along the way by a large, exceptionally well integrated shark, who does indeed swim faster than they do. And the iconic fin occasionally breaking the waves to shake the piss out of our stranded victims who can only splash away or look into the dead eyes of the beast that considers them lunch. And that is more or less the second half of the film. No fault of the direction carrying out the inevitable, there is horror in that. But when you have 40 minutes of the foursome (threesome, twosome...) floating in water, swimming into the blank horizon with the sun shining above their heads and the dark blue below them, well it leaves the audience, particularly such audiences not with a predisposed fear of sharks or open spaces, to think of such things as how far can four people go on a single litre of fresh water? Or, would it be possible to get a full nights sleep on the tiniest of floatation devices? The actors communicate their panic (in all its ugliness and banality - which to me, is quite honest) but beyond that, the film is all craft and not so much else, which leaves us back to the whole relationships metaphor, eventually you are alone on a rock in the middle of nowhere screaming at the sky. But you know what they say - there are plenty of fish in the sea.
[Special thanks to the Boston Underground Film Festival's Nicole McConvery, with who traded witticisms about the nature of sharks and relationships that perhaps inspired this review.]
[Special thanks to the Boston Underground Film Festival's Nicole McConvery, with who traded witticisms about the nature of sharks and relationships that perhaps inspired this review.]