Year of Release: 2024
Director: Xavier Gens
Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Nassim Lyes, Léa Léviant, Sandra Parfait, Aksel Ustun, Aurélia Petit, Marvin Dubart, Daouda Keita, Ibrahima Ba, Anne Marivin, Stéphane Jacquot, Jean-Marc Bellu, Nagisa Morimoto, Yannick Choirat, Iñaki Lartigue, Victor Pontecorvo, Thomas Espinera
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Another release from Netflix, this time around, with a nicely timing of connecting the narrative with the upcoming Olympic Games which will take place in Paris. The film is the latest from director Xavier Gens, who is mostly known for starting the franchise "Hitman", which actually didn't go very far (the original one featured the always underrated Timothy Olyphant in the leading role). This time around the narrative focuses on the story of marine biologist Sophia Assalas. Alongside her team, they're researching sharks when something goes awry. Sophia tries to salvage the situation, only for her whole team to be killed by the strain of shark they've been investigating. A few years later, Sophia is in Paris, where she's been working with a local aquarium. An ecological activist by the name of Mika contacts her to let her know that the shark she and her team had been tracking is now in Paris, swimming in the river Seine. While initially in disbelief, Sophia eventually realizes that's the case, when the tracker she had on the shark indicates that it is indeed in Paris. The police crew in charge of checking what's happening on the river, starts noticing some strange occurrences. Sophia warns them of what can potentially happen with the shark being on the river, and how dangerous it can be. Mika in the meantime is trying to rescue the shark, by luring it to the ocean. She leverages social media to call out attention to what's happening, and gets a considerable number of people to go with her to the catacombs of Paris to try to rescue the shark. However they soon realize that this shark is in reality a mutation of the species, doesn't abide by its typical behaviors, and goes on a killing spree, which includes Mika and some of the police river crew. And that's only the beginning.
Xavier Gens' take on the shark genre, is not exactly as claustrophobic and suspenseful as what Alejandre Aja did with "Crawl" for instance. There are the obvious influences of Steven Spielberg's iconic "Jaws" on display (the mayor who refuses to cancel the triathlon games), but for the most part, "Sous La Saine/Under Paris" focuses on displaying the carnage that the new shark species produces, firstly with the well meaning activists and later on with the athletes. As much as this film and its director attempt to create a B-movie experience of this concept, one where the characters seemingly have no background, are immediately attracted to each other, and where everyone operates in a world of little order, this film unlike others on a similar topic such as "Meg" (from director Jon Turteltaub), has very little sense of humor, and takes itself rather seriously. This rather self-imposed seriousness that the film has, alongside the lack of actual dimension to these characters (Sophia apparently has no life outside of the Aquarium, the same occurring with Adil, the handsome/model like chief of police), makes the shark do the heavy lifting when it comes to commanding the storyline. Sadly as good as the visual effects are, the carnage just isn't enough to truly make this film memorable. The writers pepper the storyline with stabs at corporations and governments, their roles in the pollution of the oceans, global warming and every single pertinent and trendy topic, but they're a faint attempt at developing a conscience in a film where innocent and well meaning by-standers are chopped liver for a killing machine. The cast is fairly solid, with Bérénice Bejo making the best of an underwritten role, but Anne Marivin ends up stealing the show as the pragmatic mayor of the city. The production team isn't great, with the cinematography by Nicolas Massart in particular giving the film a look that is quasi apparent of being shot with a nice smart phone (even the catacombs are too brightly lit). It's not a dreadful film, but it's not a particularly memorable one.
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