The Deep Blue Sea
I like the movie The Deep Blue Sea.
It's a stupid plot. In order to cure Alzheimer's disease, scientists make genetic alterations to the biggest, meanest sharks in the ocean. And they do it in a lab in the middle of the ocean far from shore and other people. Sharks take revenge. People die. Disaster ensues. There is screaming and shouting and near-death experiences. The plot holes are big and obvious and not even that much fun to pick at, being big and obvious and all. Some people call it one of the stupidest movies ever made, but it isn't, really. There are some extremely stupid movies out there.
What I like about it, though, is the characters. They're smart and flawed and not particularly good (they're not particularly unique, well-drawn characters either, but I like them anyway). The woman in charge of the research operation is driven, we are meant to understand, to find a cure for Alzheimer's because someone in her family has it or had it or died from it. She will do anything, sacrifice anything--and as it turns out, anyone--to find that cure. And even when people have died all over the place and the lab itself is sinking and the sharks are circling ever closer, she's still all about the research and how she can get out of there with everything they've learned. She does make the ultimate sacrifice at the end, but it's tough to decide if she actually intended to or just did something really, really stupid.
The man financing the operation is an adventurer and a business man. He climbed a big mountain once and survived although there was a blizzard and people died. He is modest about the adventure as well he should be, since it turns out the survivors more or less killed the others so they would survive. He's also pretty smart, interested in everything and has a good sense of humor. He makes a terrific speech about halfway through the movie about overcoming fear and working together and going on in the face of almost insurmountable danger. And then he reminds us why one doesn't stand next to a window, or an underwater facsimile thereof, in a horror movie.
There is a cook with a smart mouth and a parrot. And you know from the get-go that that parrot is going to die. We're less sure about the cook, which, unless they're walking through the movie with big black X's on their clothes, is as it should be.
There's a professor who pisses into the wind and a marine biologist who just wants to be normal and safe and a little adventurous at the same time and a geeky, but good-looking guy who wants his excitement in the form of numbers and materials analysis, but ends up anyway in the middle of a terrifying place with monsters after him.
And then, there's the hero. He's been in prison and he's just there to wrangle sharks and all he wants is to be left alone. He also looks really good in a diving suit, a heroic pre-requisite, but not really central to the plot. What I find most fascinating about him, though, is that he never hesitates. He's not at all intellectual; you could never sit around and talk opera or Shakespeare with him. But he doesn't swagger either. He never threatens to beat anyone up or spends any time playing dominance games. But when it's life or death, he acts. No thinking. No ohmygod. No good lord, I could die. He does something. I'm not sure very many of us are that way in real life. Most of us curse fate or wring our hands or wish someone else would just fix things. And when we finally act it's often just about too late, having watched the developing disaster in horror and disbelief.
Everyday heroes, people who come through despite their fears and their doubts, are amazing and grand. But in fiction, characters who act like we act come across as whiny and annoying and mostly we can't wait for them to get eaten by sharks. Fiction heroes are at their best when they are simply doing things. And the hero in The Deep Blue Sea does it as well as anyone I've seen.
And in the final analysis, that's what I like about this movie. That there's a hero and that he's both unassuming and active.
Though, the sharks are kind of cool, too.