THE REEF

Luke works professionally delivering boats, taking them from one place to another across the sea. For his last "mission" he decides to invite his ex Kate and his best friend Matt, along with his girlfriend Suzie, on board. The four, accompanied by the "old salt" Warren, embark for Indonesia, but on the second day of navigation an accident near the coral reef causes the boat to capsize. Now the five are forced to make a decision: stay on the overturned wreck, which is slowly sinking, hoping that someone will pass by and rescue them, or attempt a swim to the nearest island, which is about 20 km away. Moreover, the awareness that those waters are infested with great white sharks does not help in the difficult choice. A caption at the beginning of the film informs us that the events told are inspired by a true story. The same caption opened "Open Water", an anxious docu-horror directed by Chris Kentis in 2003, and then "Alla deriva", another aquatic thriller from 2006. All three films tell a similar story, namely ordinary people who for about an hour and a half find themselves adrift in the ocean at the mercy of the waves and what lurks beneath them. At this point, making an approximate connection, we arrive at the conclusion that with every probability that "based on real events" refers always to the same event, which seems to have become a nice trick for anyone who wanted to make a water scare film with a considerably modest budget. "The Reef", written and directed by Australian Andrew Traucki, who in 2008 had already told of killer animals with the crocodiles of "Black Water", perhaps brings home the most successful example of transposing those "real events", finding the right balance between the situation of perceptible danger of "Open Water" and the cinematic sense of "Alla deriva". "The Reef" wins and convinces because the tension is palpable and the situation credible, the actors are good and well embodied in their characters and because at times one begins to really participate in the story. When a perfect synergy is created between the various elements as in this case, it means that the film is successful, without ifs and buts. The introduction is fast, the preliminaries at a minimum and in a few minutes we find the characters serving as bait for the sharks. Of course, the way the boat capsized is really unclear and evidently glossed over due to the impossibility of showing a credible impact situation, but from the moment the five are in the water the tension constantly rises. It takes an abnormal movement of the water, a silence too long and fear peeks; then Traucki, aware of his means, uses the most genuine and effective way to scare, namely showing the bare minimum. So the sharks are there, big and hungry, among other things, but they are seen little and well: it takes a fin that emerges and then disappears under the surface of the water, then a sudden and very close appearance for the right "meal" and finally the agony of those who are "taken" and those who are there watching them die without being able to do anything. The characters are characterized just right, without overdoing stereotypes but outlining in a few lines the characters. The actors do well, starting with the protagonist Damian Walshe-Howling (the TV series "Underbelly") and the very credible Zoe Naylor, who plays Kate. The only downside of "The Reef" is the inevitable sense of déjà-vu that is inevitably felt in a story told for the third time. Add half a pumpkin.