28 meters underwater, trapped under a rock and running out of air. That’s the basic dilemma in The Dive, a surprisingly entertaining movie about a scuba excursion gone wrong.
Two sisters, May and Drew, are on vacation together, even though May doesn’t seem all that interested. The two girls are divers and head out together to explore some underwater caverns. But things don’t go so swimmingly (ha ha). When there is a sudden rockslide, May gets trapped under a rock and Drew must race to free her before her air runs out.
Honestly, I did not have the highest expectation going into this movie. It’s basically an escape movie with a ticking clock. There are dozens of these movies, and many are not very good. To my delight though, The Dive is a fun movie and was an enjoyable watch. This is primarily due to a solid plot, an effective building of tension, and some wonderful underwater camera work.
What I like best about The Dive was the story. It’s fairly simple but makes effective use of the situation and the characters to drive up the tension. May is the level-headed, responsible, planner of the two. Yet it is her that is the one trapped. Having Drew be the one that needs to save her sister while seemingly being not quite up to the task, does make things tense. The story has set her up as being the less responsible one, and so her panic and indecisiveness feel real. And the story throws enough roadblocks in the way to keep this from being easily resolved, yet never feeling too forced. Is it likely that all these things go wrong at the same time? Perhaps not. But nothing feels as though it could not happen. And with the ticking clock of May running out of air, the tension just keeps rising.
Even better is that as the story reaches it conclusion, it sticks to the internal logic it has established. There’s no sudden miracle cure here. No diving group that just happens upon the same site just in time, or the miraculous find of another air tank lying nearby for unknown reasons. I’m not sure the conclusion would technically work, but it falls in line with the rest of the story.
And let’s not forget the underwater camerawork. Really great stuff. It captures both the beauty of the sea, while still making it appear daunting and scary, particularly given the situation.
While the main plot of The Dive is good, there is a subplot that seems to exist just to take up space. May is haunted by her past and has continual flashes of childhood memories of swimming with her sister, and moments with their father. The movie does not explicitly deal with any of these moments and I’m honestly not sure of the point other than to try and force some tension between the sisters. But this isn’t needed. Simply sticking to the basic story was enough. Everything else felt forced and out of place.
The other drawback of the movie is the dialogue. I’m not sure if it is primarily the script or the acting. Sometimes it just felt so stilted and unnatural. I can’t quite put my finger on what was wrong, but it just felt flat. At other times, it is definitely the script as the sisters have too many sentimental moments when time is running out. Maybe that’s natural if you were in such a situation, but it felt out of place in the movie.
Despite a couple problems, I did enjoy The Dive. It’s a solid story that, despite a few too many things going wrong, feels like it could happen. And surprisingly, the conclusion adheres to any logic set up in the story rather than a sudden solution just appearing out of nowhere. This is not a great movie by any stretch but I think it is worth watching. If you can get into the premise, you should suit up and take the plunge (just forget that I tried to make that joke, ugh).
Have you seen The Dive? Are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.