DANGEROUS WATERS (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

Dangerous Waters, Brainstorm Media

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | October 12, 2023

A vacation goes wrong—and then worse and worse—in Dangerous Waters, a Murphy's Law brand of thriller that changes gears a bit too frequently. In presenting a series of increasingly dangerous scenarios at a mounting rate of frequency, the movie loses both its grounding and its credibility.

The setup is simple. Teenaged Rose (Odeya Rush) and her single mother Alma (Saffron Burrows), both working in the service industry to stay afloat and hopefully get the teen to college, have been invited to take a sailing trip to Bermuda to celebrate Alma's 40th birthday. The person setting up the trip is Alma's new, well-to-do boyfriend Derek (Eric Dane), who was once a cop and now works in private security.

Everything starts fine enough. Derek clearly cares for Alma, having a cake and champagne ready for some rest and relaxation, and although Rose is suspicious of her mom's new beau, she gradually warms up to the guy, because he seems so considerate. Sure, he's hiding a semi-automatic rifle and some pistols in boat's cabin, but when Rose asks him about the weapons, Derek says they're just for his job. He even lets her fire a few rounds into the water, and from that apparent display of perfect aim, Derek determines that the girl is a natural.

Will this be important for later? Of course, it will, just as a seemingly throwaway line from Alma about Rose being a trained fighter will come into play at some point. One imagines that Rose's stated love for action movies is a bit of foreshadowing, too, although one wonders how much watching brawls and firefights in the movies actually prepares someone like her—or anyone, for that matter—for the final turn of Mark Jackson's screenplay. If her instant calm and skill under immense pressure are any indication, a steady diet of actioners is more than enough to handle oneself in a battle straight out of any generic action movie.

Before any of that, though, Jackson and director John Barr make a somewhat convincing case that this story will take a more realistic approach to survival under difficult circumstances. Some of those include heavy winds, which result in Rose losing her cellphone, and a storm, which is nothing compared to what Derek's past and current troubles have in store for the trio.

Some men with guns ram and board the boat, looking for something other than the firearms that Derek is hiding, and suddenly, Rose finds herself alone on the vessel, unable to operate its motor or any of its electronic system because of the attack, and stranded somewhere in the ocean between Florida and Bermuda.

That is, perhaps, all that can be specifically stated about the plot, since Jackson attempts some surprises along the way toward that climactic showdown. Some are more believable than others, such as when Rose finds herself on the wrong course toward the island nation and winds up on a different, uninhabited, and far more remote island. She does have some help, at least, although the plot's quickly established pattern of throwing obstacle after obstacle at the teen more or less gives away one of those twists well before it happens. That the suspicious and untrusting Rose puts herself in a vulnerable situation might be just as contrived as the fact that a threat gives away the bigger game being played before any sort of success is assured. The plot has to keep moving, after all.

It does, by way of fights and a chase, which stops for a brief interlude at the height of the action, and a character who's essentially the cliché of the Unstoppable Killer, for as many injuries as the character is able to endure and survive in order to remain a threat. One of them especially beggars belief, although it's not until the finale, when the movie already has plenty of baggage in regards to its decreasing plausibility, that we realize how much the filmmakers expect to buy.

Some elements do keep the material relatively grounded in some sort of reality. The helpless of the post-attack scenes on the boat is tangible, and that island, for as little as it's actually incorporated into the plot, provides a sense of isolation that somewhat convinces us Rose might let her guard down in the hopes of some aid. Rush's performance is generally fine, although the comparatively young actor seems a bit lost in communicating her character's in-the-moment reactions in silence and close-ups. There are a lot of such moments here, unfortunately, and it's especially noticeable, again, when the character takes on a sudden change in the third act. It doesn't help that part of that is played against the late Ray Liotta, who effortlessly oozes menace in his final filmed performance.

Basically, the broad scheme of this plot is sound in its design and thinking. The important part of maintaining some kind of believability, though, rests in the specifics, and there, Dangerous Waters comes up short.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products