A fun-filled flight to a remote atoll turns into a nightmare for five passengers when their seaplane is destroyed in a freak accident and they are trapped on a raft, 100 miles from shore with man-eating sharks lurking beneath the surface.
I guess I will have to state the obligatory reference to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” and that is no matter how many times filmmakers create new movies that deal with the pesky fish, nothing will ever match Spielberg’s mastery of suspense and tension in his 1975 blockbuster. However, that doesn’t mean he owns that corner of the market, on the contrary, over the years, there have been many enjoyable “shark” films; “The Shallows,” “The Meg,” “Deep Blue Sea,” even “Jaws 2” was a worthy follow-up to Spielberg’s masterpiece but none came close to the sheer brilliance and imaginativeness of the original.
Martin Wilson, in his directorial feature film debut, delivers a conventional but occasionally gripping thriller that finds five people stranded on an inflatable life raft when a shark attacks their seaplane, causing it to sink. As they drift off the Australian coast with nothing but small paddles to help get them back to shore, personalities clash, and drama emerges, along with two killer sharks, forcing them to put their differences aside so they can work together as a team. As the current gradually brings them closer to an island, their life raft slowly begins to deflate, and now they must try to swim to the shore without succumbing to either of the sharks pursuing them.
I have to commend the producers of “Great White” for actually shooting a lot of the movie utilizing old-school practical effects instead of CGI, while it is used sparingly, the use of practical effects is refreshing in this day of CGI oversaturation. However, when you limit your story to one location, regardless of whether it is a warehouse in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” a hotel room in Richard Linklater’s “Tape,” or an inflatable life raft, you better make sure you have a great script to back it up. With five people sharing the same space, conversation can only go so far, and when you’ve used up all of your shark surprise scenarios, the story quickly begins to deflate, much like the raft they are occupying.
The overall production quality is impressive, and the acting, for the most part, is fine. Cinematographer Tony O’Loughlan shoots the movie in glorious widescreen and presents the beauty and dangerous ruggedness of the Australian coastline in magnificent splendor. While “Great White” is far from being a great film, it is more ambitious in scope than most other features of its ilk, and I look forward to seeing what director Martin Wilson has lined up next.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD September 7th
