‘The Dive’ Movie Review: An Effective Survival Thriller That Doesn’t Even Need Sharks
Photo from RLJE Films
From Jeremy Kibler
47 Meters Down without the sharks or Fall underwater, The Dive is a minimalist exercise in ticking-clock tension. Frankly, writer-director Max Erlenwein and co-writer Joachim Hedén (whose 2020 Swedish film “Breaking Surface” gets the English-language remake treatment here) don’t need any other treacherous threat besides the depths of the deep blue sea. Anyone who plans on scuba diving anytime soon should use this as a prerequisite and a warning.
It’s the annual diving trip for sisters Drew (Sophie Lowe) and May (Louisa Krause). They park their car near the cliff of a mountain and climb down to a remote beach with tanks and scuba gear. Drew is excited to be on the trip, but she feels like May has been aloof lately. During their dive, there’s a landslide above, sending rocks into the water and trapping May from the waist down. Inside their integrated diving masks, May tells Drew what she needs to do and how much time they have left, but naturally, the odds are constantly stacked against them.
There is a clear logic to every decision Drew must make to save her sister. She can’t panic or her oxygen supply will quickly dwindle. She was planning on getting the extra tanks, the car keys, and her cell phone, but they are now trapped underneath a bunch of fallen rocks onshore. Without car keys, Drew is able to smash a window and get in to grab two other oxygen tanks. The trunk release button won’t open, however, to get the car jack to lift the rock that has May trapped. If Drew can’t use her phone to call anyone, is it worth trekking a mile to the nearest house? With all this swimming to the surface and back to the bottom, Drew also can’t risk getting nitrogen narcosis.
Through Erlenwein and Hedén’s script, and Lowe and Krause’s performances, everything we need to know about this estranged sister relationship is efficiently conveyed. They used to be close, but that’s changed. More and more is inferred about Drew and May’s relationship with their tough-love father as the film goes on and trickles in hallucinatory childhood flashbacks, including the reason why The Platters’ song “Only You (And You Alone)” makes May want to shut off the car radio. The film almost doesn’t need that device, but the memories, both good and bad, do bring weight to the sisterly relationship. Lowe and Krause are both very good and up to the task of their roles’ physical and emotional demands. Lowe, in particular, gets a lot to do as Drew, MacGyver-ing her way through every problem that comes her way, while Krause must remain calm as May and put complete trust in her sibling. We never question Drew and May’s diving expertise, but even their experience can’t prepare them for these circumstances.
Tense and trim, The Dive is an effective, no-frills survival thriller. It’s an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire situation that keeps increasing the stakes but never loses plausibility. Shot in the Maltese islands (and probably in very convincing water tanks), the film is suffocatingly well-photographed and lighted that it’s possible safe and dry viewers will even start focusing on their breathing. Though feel-bad movie lovers may call the film out on its tidy conclusion, the final catharsis actually feels earned. If numerous movies haven’t already made you say “hell no!” to taking up scuba diving, The Dive seals the deal as a harrowing pulse-racer.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Dive hits select theaters on August 25, 2023.
