Deep Water Movie Review

Let’s say this is typical Renny Harlin. If you know the name, you know his style. And if you know and enjoy his style, that’s not a bad thing. ​
Harlin, whose work includes, “Cliffhanger,” “Cutthroat Island,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” “Die Hard 2,” and one of my favorite shark movies outside of “Jaws,” “Deep Blue Sea,” has a distinctive style. He’s good at building suspense for his audience. Saying that, with “Deep Water,” it’s clear that Harlin is a fan of “Jaws”, so I hope you are, too.

Without it being a remake, Harlin does sort of use some of the same plot points and many of the same technical elements as in the 1970’s thriller. I’d like to point out that, in almost every movie he makes, there isn’t a stunt Harlin doesn’t like to throw in to scare you. A jump scare, right out of the blue, and no moment is too small to insert one. It’s almost his trademark, so be prepared.

“Deep Water” stars Sir Ben Kingsley as Rich, the captain, and Aaron Eckhart as Ben, the first officer, to make sure he flies straight. The characters are introduced before anything tragic happens. They are all well-developed and well-written. Before things get ugly, you do care for them, something I look for in an action thriller. You have to have an emotional connection to feel concern during a scene where someone is in danger. The team of writers did a good job there. They gave us a character to dislike, something to distract everyone from the peril they face. The flight is on the way to Shanghai from LA and, of course, crashes into a shark hotspot. This makes for some fun.

After that horrific crash scene, debris is everywhere, and the people who survived cling to what they hope is a good enough buoyant device. The story jumps among different parts of the plane where people are near or in. One comedic moment is someone mentioning that a woman is acting like Shelly Winters, who was in a water-related thriller called “The Poseidon Adventure” and she was in every other disaster movie ever made, or so it seemed. This made me chuckle.

The whole of the movie, you’re asking yourself, will they be saved? How can they be since they’re so far out? Will differences be resolved? Yes, there are a few dramatic entanglements, but it’s all for dramatic effect, to enrapture us and to delight. Who doesn’t want a little situational irony with their catastrophe? I say see this at the theater with a crowd. That always makes a Renny Harlin film more amusing to watch.