This week’s journey through my Letterboxd Map takes us to the Dominican Republic where we’re heading 47 Meters Down.
Title: 47 Meters Down
Director: Johannes Roberts
Released: May 25, 2017 (Theatrical – Italy)
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes
Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) have decided that the best way for Lisa to get over her recent breakup is a sister’s trip to Mexico. While there, they decide on a whim to pay to go into a dive cage and be lowered down amongst the sharks.
Despite Lisa having zero diving experience, the sisters lie and tell the Captain that they’re both experienced divers. The Captain, not one to turn down a paying customer, agrees to take them out. They gear up, are given final instructions, climb into the cage, and then are slowly lowered into the water.
Not long into their descent, the winch cable snaps, sending the sisters plummeting forty-seven meters down below the surface. At that depth, radio communication is no longer effective. Lisa and Kate are stranded, surrounded by sharks, with a limited supply of oxygen.
Being in a shark cage forty-seven meters below the surface is a terrifying concept on its own, and that’s before you add sharks. Somehow, that concept gets ironed out to where there aren’t a lot of tense scenes, let alone sharks.
Right away I should have known things weren’t going to be great. We get Lisa on the beach in what is very clearly daylight hours, saying “this is the best night ever” and how she could just stay there all night. Both sisters then blindly agree to go shark diving with two random guys they just met who happen to know a guy. When Lisa expresses doubt, Kate basically hits her with “but think of the Instagram photos” and that’s all it took.
That’s not to say there’s nothing positive here. The underwater footage is actually pretty impressive. From about the twenty-minute mark on, this takes place almost exclusively underwater, and honestly it’s the cinematography that keeps you engaged. There’s also a twist at the end that, while probably accurate given the circumstances, doesn’t feel earned.
When it comes to shark films, most titles follow the same structure. Humans are in the water, sharks are there too, man versus beast to see who survives. There’s room to play within those parameters, but that’s pretty much the bones of every shark movie.
These movies also tend to fall into one of three categories: some are good, some are bad, and most are just forgettable. Unfortunately, 47 Meters Down straddles the frustrating line somewhere between bad and forgettable.