Movie Review:
Open Water
R / 1 hr., 19 min. / 2004
Despite the number of films out there that are “based on a true story,” real life does not lend itself well to movies. The daily existence of most people is quite ordinary, which, of course, is why screenwriters exist: They hunt down those intriguing little nuggets of real life that do hold some interest and then punch them up a bit with colorful characters, spicy dialogue, a well-rounded three-act structure, and so forth.
Open Water is based on one of those intriguing little nuggets of real life. The film’s story is simple and sounds much like the news copy of the event: A couple (Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan) take a vacation to a seaside town where they sign up for a scuba diving pleasure cruise. While they are enjoying close-up views of reefs and exotic fish, the boat captain makes a fatal calculation in counting the number of people who have come back to the boat. Believing that all passengers are back aboard, the captain returns to shore, and the couple re-surface to see nothing but ocean on all sides.
With no hope of swimming the vast leagues to shore, or of catching the attention of any of the ships on the distant horizon, the couple float along together as the current takes them into unknown territory. As the hours pass, they talk, they distract themselves with little word games, they unleash pent-up fury over their situation, they argue over who got them into this mess, they cry, they reconcile. And they notice the sharks.
Innocent bystanders trapped in dangerous and seemingly inescapable places can result in very suspenseful films. I think of Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, or the recent sci-fi indie film Cube. The foundational premise for Open Water is equally fascinating, made more gripping by the fact that it is drawn from actual headlines. Here we have the sheer terror of a vast ocean separating us from safety, with unseen dangers surrounding us and circling closer with every passing hour.
But there is a foundational problem that frustrates any attempts at Open Water becoming a great movie: The creators tried too hard to create Real Life. They opted to discard Hollywood’s polished dialogue, experienced performers, professional lighting and imaging, or emotional orchestral score; and what they produced is Exhibit A in why Hollywood’s techniques produce better movies. Everyone who complains about the tepid products the Hollywood Machine puts out should see Open Water to learn how boring the alternative is. (Of course, there is the third option – well-made indie films – but these are basically just Hollywood-quality production values with fresher ideas in the foundation.)
In looking at Chris Kentis’ script, there is very little to work with. We really only have one central crisis – a couple isolated in shark-infested waters – and one crisis does not fill out a film very well. There are minor crises along the way, such as the encounter with jellyfish, but these elements are spurious. Take Finding Nemo, where Marlin’s and Dory’s swim through a sea of jellyfish has ramifications in the story: Marlin takes another step toward real courage, he demonstrates that he cares about Dory despite being frustrated by her, and he earns the respect and aid of the sea turtles. In Open Water, once the jellyfish have moved on, so has any concern or consequence regarding them; they have absolutely no lingering effect on the characters or the situation. And this is the recurring trend throughout the entire film.
Certainly an attempt is made to have the crisis push the couple over a character arc. They start as a fairly well-adjusted duo who are rather confused at finding no boat on the water’s surface. They wonder if maybe they swam too far afield during the dive. As reality sinks in, they get nervous. As time passes and they are able to really absorb their situation, the husband starts relieving stress by shouting to the gods, which irritates the wife, which sparks a heated argument about why they were scuba diving at all instead of being off on a different holiday, which they would have been if “you weren’t always so busy at work,” and so on. But it is a weak effort that failed to captivate or engage me, either because it stuck too closely to its predictable template or because it just sounded too mundane, I can’t decide. The dialogue comes across like an obligatory plot device rather than the natural inspired conversation of two desperate people. Who knows what a great writer could have done with this same scenario. I’d love to hear the couple’s conversation as per David Mamet, for example.
There is an utter extraneousness to the entire script, in fact. The film opens with the husband and wife packing for the trip. In a professional screenplay, this scene would contain either dialogue or visuals that would serve a function: Perhaps foreshadowing something to come, or providing important insight into the personalities of the couple. Alas, no, the scene says little more than “Here is the man, here is the woman.” Okay, there is a hint that they are both a little bit modernized, dependent on their laptops; but like the jellyfish, this facet of their characters has no part to play later on.
The packing scene is supposed to be clever – the husband is in the car, the wife is in a house somewhere, they’re on cell phones talking to each other, and it turns out they’re a mere thirty feet apart – but plays so much like ordinary life that it is blandly uninteresting. And even claiming it plays like real life is a stretch, as all of the scenes before they hit the water are so poorly acted they feel like some of my early home video productions.
The same uselessness is true for the scenes at the beach hotel where they spend the night before diving, unless you happen to enjoy explicit nudity. They talk like an ordinary couple, they have some romance and she announces she just doesn’t feel like “doing it” tonight, they go to sleep, they get up in the morning. The truth is, we could have gone straight to the couple arriving on the dock, run the opening credits over their getting on the boat, and not be missing any critical information at all.
I don’t know the circumstances under which the real couple in the true story got abandoned at sea, but the method used in this film seems sloppy. I cannot believe that a professional scuba diving tour boat company would be so careless in keeping track of the identities of the passengers, especially in our hyper-litigious society where a mistake like that would have lawyers swarming over the managers faster than Democrats flocking to Ohio to demand a recount.
Once the couple hits the water, the acting kicks in a bit, and there is a certain believability to Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan, minus the dialogue’s drawbacks and the plot’s one-note crisis. I wouldn’t be surprised if either one of these performers shows up in another production. After all, if Hollywood is willing to keep hiring Keanu Reeves, then Travis and Ryan are shoe-ins.
For me, as a videographer, the worst part about the film is the image itself. It is painfully obvious that the production was shot on a video camera. A good video camera, yes, but still a video camera. There is a distinct blur that is only achieved by shooting at 30 frames per second on video and transferring to film at 24 frames per second. This is bad enough to view in theaters, but when the 24 FPS image is sent back to DVD at 30 FPS with a 3/2 pull-down, there is no hope left for any kind of quality image. (Even if those technical terms meant nothing to you, you can see the difference by watching any movie shot on film and sent to video, and compare the look with Open Water.) At least projects like Time Code and The Blair Witch Project had the courtesy to send their original video edits straight to video instead of using the film print as an intermediate.
On top of this, many shots in the film look as though the cinematographer had the video camera’s aperture set to Automatic. You know Uncle Joe’s home videos, where he walks out of the house, and as he does so, the back yard is horridly bright and white until the camera quickly re-adjusts and fades to a more natural level? Unbelievably – for people who knew enough to make this production at all – shots in Open Water do the same very unprofessional thing, making it feel like a cheap home video rather than a note-worthy artistic endeavor.
Do I have anything good to say? Yes, actually, two things. Specifically, there is one very admirable shot that captures the essence of Hitchcock’s belief that “Less Seen is More Frightening.” Toward the end, the camera is at water’s level, with waves lapping at the lens, and for a mere fraction of a second, we get a glimpse underwater at the teeming mass of sharks. It goes by so fast, but it is just enough to be absolutely terrifying. (The effect is deflated when we get a longer shot a few seconds later, but by itself the first shot is suspenseful cinematography at its best.)
And generally speaking, I appreciate the effort. Here we have a man taking available pro-sumer technology and fashioning a finished product. Chris Kentis took a boat, a couple cast members, and some crew, and spent several weekends hammering out the production – no easy task. Kentis is living his dream (I assume), and I always reserve a certain amount of applause for fellow novice film makers like myself who actually venture out and get something done. It’s unfortunate that his premiere opus is so hollow and inconsequential on an artistic level; but everyone starts somewhere, and Open Water undoubtedly provided Kentis with experiences that he will improve upon.
My Score: 3
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Days of Greek Lives
Movie Review:
Troy
R / 2 hrs., 43 min. / 2004
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, and beware of German directors bearing films: One takes your city, the other takes your money at the box office – both leave you nothing in return. Well, “nothing” is a bit harsh for Wolfgang Petersen’s latest effort, but it’s like getting food as a Christmas present: Once you’ve eaten it, the enjoyment is all over.
One would think the myths behind the battle over Troy would make a really good movie. A lot of sweeping, epic war scenes; political intrigue; and, if you’re into that sort of thing, a bunch of semi-naked hunks running around. Specifically, Orlando Bloom for the teen chicks, Brad Pitt for the lonely housewives, and Eric Bana for anyone I left out. Personally, I saw more of any of those men than I ever wanted to see.
I cannot speak for how Troy the movie relates to Troy the history, so I shall speak of the film alone, which plays like a soap opera dropped in the middle of ancient Greece. Achilles (Brad Pitt) is a morose, melancholic warrior, tired of being ordered around by King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). He wants his own fame, his own legendary status, a name to live on after him into eternity.
Agamemnon and his army are on a quest to subjugate all the separate city-states of Greece under one ruler. He has been tremendously successful so far, needing only Troy. His brother Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) is attempting to woo Troy’s fealty through peaceful talks with princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). Those talks have a slight break-down when Paris seduces Menelaus’ wife and queen Helen (Diane Kruger) away from him. The pursuit back to Troy is on, and the Trojan War erupts. I did not have time to verify that a thousand ships were in the fleet, however.
The rather long second act of the film involves Achilles leading the pack into the fray on the beaches of Troy and taking a vestal virgin from the temple as a hostage, in fact saving her life from the brutality of his fellow warriors. He falls in love with her, she falls in love with him, and somewhere in there his famous heel comes into play, but I won’t spoil it.
Meanwhile, Hector prepares to defend the city, Paris tries his hand at a one-on-one competition for Helen’s hand, Priam (Peter O’Toole) sits around looking nervous, and arrows fly back and forth.
Critics have positively savaged the film, but I would like to start by saying it’s not all that bad for what it’s worth, being a piece of summer escapism. It’s not all that good, either, but as something to sit and be amused by for a couple of hours, it generally succeeds, at least for me. I felt amused. There you have it. But it is definitely flawed, occasionally boring, sometimes laughable, largely uninspired beyond its predecessors, and generally not worth a second ticket.
So what went wrong? It’s hard to say, really. For me, the biggest detractor was the lack of a real hero. I’m assuming Achilles is our “Main Hero” since Brad Pitt (Ocean’s Eleven) looms across the movie poster and his name is the headliner. But for a protagonist, he does little if nothing at all to enlist our sympathies, our interest, or our admiration. Sure, he’s a supernaturally gifted warrior, but he’s cold, heartless, uninterested, lifeless, droll, moping – the list goes on.
I guess we’re meant to have our hearts cheered by the transformation Achilles undergoes upon taking the vestal virgin (Rose Byrne) back to his tent. The man who once would have raped her without question instead cleans her wounds and treats her gently. She softens to her captor, seeing past all the dirt and sweat and finding a heart, I suppose. Whatever she sees in him, they end up in a passionate embrace (happens all the time between brutal rapist captors and their victims!), and Achilles has found something worth living for. Well, okay. But I can’t say my heart went out to the darling couple in their final scene together.
Paris can hardly count as the story’s hero. He commits adultery and then encourages Helen to run away from her husband and live with him. Both of them falsely call what they feel for each other “love.” True love would have respected the marriage bond.
The closest one to being a halfway noble character is Hector. Unfortunately, he is willing to shelter Paris’ indiscretion and sacrifice hundreds or thousands of Trojan lives for it. So he misses the mark, too. But at least he wrestles with ethical issues and tries to do something brotherly instead of being wholly self-absorbed like Paris.
This ignoble storyline is not really helped by any of the technical aspects. Granted, the film is capably made. The fight scenes are big, the political scenes are well acted, the love scenes are steamy. The problem is that none of it, individually or as a whole, rises above anything that has come before. It is merely one more entry in the Big Ancient Epic Battle genre. It’s like when some new actor wants to try his hand at Hamlet or Othello even though these productions have been put on a million times. I’m guessing Petersen, Pitt, Bana (Hulk), Bloom (Kingdom of Heaven), O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia), and the others involved saw an opportunity to work on a story they’ve “always wanted to try,” even though there was no call for it.
There was one, count it, one scene that caught my attention with its visuals. I won’t spoil it, but it involves giant flaming balls of rope, which looks quite cool and which isn’t as silly as it sounds on paper.
Since it’s the Trojan War, you know the Trojan Horse is going to figure into it. And one neat shot shows the horse resting in the Trojan courtyard late at night, still, silent – and suddenly dispensing warriors from its interior. But one of the screenplay’s biggest faults is the shameless way it brings the horse into the story.
A hopeless Odysseus (Sean Bean) sits by the campfire determined to find a way into Troy’s impenetrable walls. Next to him, a fellow warrior chisels a little horse out of wood to give to his son one day. A light goes on in Odysseus’ brain, and he engineers the construction of a hollow wooden horse to hide in. Now, usually a solution to a problem is based on, you know, an inspiration actually related to it. So would it not have made more sense to have Odysseus watching someone, I don’t know, hollow something out? And hide something in it? For all the lame dialogue and action, this has to be the worst moment of the film, a complete lapse in screenwriter David Benioff’s mental capacities as he was typing away.
Well, I started by accusing critics of savaging the film, and I have pretty much done the same. I will repeat my assessment that the film is not actually all that horrible. It is entertainment, and it is entertaining. It was created by a capable cast and crew, from photography to costuming to sets to the music score.
Like Achilles, it has fatal weaknesses. But unlike the Trojan War itself, no one will be talking about this film millennia from now. Probably not even into the next decade.
My Score: 5
Troy
R / 2 hrs., 43 min. / 2004
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, and beware of German directors bearing films: One takes your city, the other takes your money at the box office – both leave you nothing in return. Well, “nothing” is a bit harsh for Wolfgang Petersen’s latest effort, but it’s like getting food as a Christmas present: Once you’ve eaten it, the enjoyment is all over.
One would think the myths behind the battle over Troy would make a really good movie. A lot of sweeping, epic war scenes; political intrigue; and, if you’re into that sort of thing, a bunch of semi-naked hunks running around. Specifically, Orlando Bloom for the teen chicks, Brad Pitt for the lonely housewives, and Eric Bana for anyone I left out. Personally, I saw more of any of those men than I ever wanted to see.
I cannot speak for how Troy the movie relates to Troy the history, so I shall speak of the film alone, which plays like a soap opera dropped in the middle of ancient Greece. Achilles (Brad Pitt) is a morose, melancholic warrior, tired of being ordered around by King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). He wants his own fame, his own legendary status, a name to live on after him into eternity.
Agamemnon and his army are on a quest to subjugate all the separate city-states of Greece under one ruler. He has been tremendously successful so far, needing only Troy. His brother Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) is attempting to woo Troy’s fealty through peaceful talks with princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). Those talks have a slight break-down when Paris seduces Menelaus’ wife and queen Helen (Diane Kruger) away from him. The pursuit back to Troy is on, and the Trojan War erupts. I did not have time to verify that a thousand ships were in the fleet, however.
The rather long second act of the film involves Achilles leading the pack into the fray on the beaches of Troy and taking a vestal virgin from the temple as a hostage, in fact saving her life from the brutality of his fellow warriors. He falls in love with her, she falls in love with him, and somewhere in there his famous heel comes into play, but I won’t spoil it.
Meanwhile, Hector prepares to defend the city, Paris tries his hand at a one-on-one competition for Helen’s hand, Priam (Peter O’Toole) sits around looking nervous, and arrows fly back and forth.
Critics have positively savaged the film, but I would like to start by saying it’s not all that bad for what it’s worth, being a piece of summer escapism. It’s not all that good, either, but as something to sit and be amused by for a couple of hours, it generally succeeds, at least for me. I felt amused. There you have it. But it is definitely flawed, occasionally boring, sometimes laughable, largely uninspired beyond its predecessors, and generally not worth a second ticket.
So what went wrong? It’s hard to say, really. For me, the biggest detractor was the lack of a real hero. I’m assuming Achilles is our “Main Hero” since Brad Pitt (Ocean’s Eleven) looms across the movie poster and his name is the headliner. But for a protagonist, he does little if nothing at all to enlist our sympathies, our interest, or our admiration. Sure, he’s a supernaturally gifted warrior, but he’s cold, heartless, uninterested, lifeless, droll, moping – the list goes on.
I guess we’re meant to have our hearts cheered by the transformation Achilles undergoes upon taking the vestal virgin (Rose Byrne) back to his tent. The man who once would have raped her without question instead cleans her wounds and treats her gently. She softens to her captor, seeing past all the dirt and sweat and finding a heart, I suppose. Whatever she sees in him, they end up in a passionate embrace (happens all the time between brutal rapist captors and their victims!), and Achilles has found something worth living for. Well, okay. But I can’t say my heart went out to the darling couple in their final scene together.
Paris can hardly count as the story’s hero. He commits adultery and then encourages Helen to run away from her husband and live with him. Both of them falsely call what they feel for each other “love.” True love would have respected the marriage bond.
The closest one to being a halfway noble character is Hector. Unfortunately, he is willing to shelter Paris’ indiscretion and sacrifice hundreds or thousands of Trojan lives for it. So he misses the mark, too. But at least he wrestles with ethical issues and tries to do something brotherly instead of being wholly self-absorbed like Paris.
This ignoble storyline is not really helped by any of the technical aspects. Granted, the film is capably made. The fight scenes are big, the political scenes are well acted, the love scenes are steamy. The problem is that none of it, individually or as a whole, rises above anything that has come before. It is merely one more entry in the Big Ancient Epic Battle genre. It’s like when some new actor wants to try his hand at Hamlet or Othello even though these productions have been put on a million times. I’m guessing Petersen, Pitt, Bana (Hulk), Bloom (Kingdom of Heaven), O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia), and the others involved saw an opportunity to work on a story they’ve “always wanted to try,” even though there was no call for it.
There was one, count it, one scene that caught my attention with its visuals. I won’t spoil it, but it involves giant flaming balls of rope, which looks quite cool and which isn’t as silly as it sounds on paper.
Since it’s the Trojan War, you know the Trojan Horse is going to figure into it. And one neat shot shows the horse resting in the Trojan courtyard late at night, still, silent – and suddenly dispensing warriors from its interior. But one of the screenplay’s biggest faults is the shameless way it brings the horse into the story.
A hopeless Odysseus (Sean Bean) sits by the campfire determined to find a way into Troy’s impenetrable walls. Next to him, a fellow warrior chisels a little horse out of wood to give to his son one day. A light goes on in Odysseus’ brain, and he engineers the construction of a hollow wooden horse to hide in. Now, usually a solution to a problem is based on, you know, an inspiration actually related to it. So would it not have made more sense to have Odysseus watching someone, I don’t know, hollow something out? And hide something in it? For all the lame dialogue and action, this has to be the worst moment of the film, a complete lapse in screenwriter David Benioff’s mental capacities as he was typing away.
Well, I started by accusing critics of savaging the film, and I have pretty much done the same. I will repeat my assessment that the film is not actually all that horrible. It is entertainment, and it is entertaining. It was created by a capable cast and crew, from photography to costuming to sets to the music score.
Like Achilles, it has fatal weaknesses. But unlike the Trojan War itself, no one will be talking about this film millennia from now. Probably not even into the next decade.
My Score: 5
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