"What was once in the deep is now in the shallows."
Nancy Adams (Blake Lively, "The Age of Adaline," "Green Lantern," "The Town") bailed from medical school after her mom died of cancer. She's now in the secluded beach in Mexico for some surf, sun and alone time. Her late mom used to spend time there.
Nancy is not alone, however. A shark literally stalks and hunts her down day and night, while she's lying on a rock outcrop (which gets flooded during high tide), wounded from the shark's initial bite and stung by fire corals. Her training comes in handy when she has to perform an emergency treatment on herself. The shark continues to pursue Nancy as she swims for her life from a whale carcass to the rock and to a metal buoy. The shore, merely 200 yards away, is out of reach.
Like any other solo survival story, Lively has to carry the movie by herself. The gorgeous aerial and underwater shots help, as well as the appropriate makeup for sunburn, cuts and bruises. But in this minimalist tale, you'll have to be convinced of her panic, pain, terror, desperation and grit while injured, bloodied, cold, hungry and dehydrated. Lively does it swimmingly.
Realizing that no one is going to rescue her, Nancy charts her course for survival to outwit the scary shark and the result is gloriously bonkers.
Shark attack. Girl power. "The Shallows" is a thrilling survival ride.
Blu-ray: http://tinyurl.com/theshallowsbluray