The Reef Review

• 11th Jan 2011

The Reef may seem like an Aussie version of such previous films as Open Water and Adrift, but the end result has the typical eerie style one would expect from an Antipodean movie. It is beautifully shot by Daniel Ardilley, with a haunting soundtrack by Rafael May, in which he projects an eerie sense of nature through his score, and has as sublime use of landscape, or as in the case, the sublime use of seascape.

Based on a true story, it is about a group of friends who decide to go on a sailing trip and find themselves in trouble when the keel of their yacht is sheered off when it runs aground and capsizes the boat. The group are then faced with a predicament as to what they should do: either they remain on the boat and hope to be picked up or swim a good distance to the nearest island that they estimate is due north. All bar one decide on the latter risking the shark infested waters. After swimming for a while they spot a Great White shark who appears to be circling them and in a bid for survival try to make it to the nearest island, but the shark is just biding its time.

The resultant film just falls short of the eerie menace of nature and the characters are lacking depth, despite the confused relationship between Kate and Luke (played by Zoe Naylor and Damien Walshe-Howling respectively). When the story takes place on land the hand held camerawork is irritating, but once in the water (where much of the film takes place) it ratchets this up a notch, perfectly working the tension. The character of Warren (Kieran Darcy-Smith), (the one left on the boat) presents a voice of reason and is a strong character. This is opposed by Luke, who believes that survival lies in swimming to the nearest island. Although he is held as the one responsible for finding them in their predicament and risking the survivors lives by urging everyone to swim to the nearest island he seems to have the strongest survival instincts.

Shooting sharks and nature is not short of its difficulties and here the Great White shark is not presented as a monster but as a creature driven by instinct as it pursues the film’s cast. In that sense it shows the shark’s grace and nature as if we were watching a documentary, but with impending death not far away. It becomes clear that the shark’s nature is one of patience as it waits for its potential meal to start separating in order that he can pick them off one by one. We are not exposed to the bloody severed limbs of the Jaws films and we are spared such gratuitousness, which may disappoint some I’m sure.

The Reef, released straight to DVD is, as previously mentioned a better film that other similar recent films of the past few years and deserves a wider audience.

Chris Hick