Critic’s rating: ★
(89 minutes; R)
“The Requin” offers a moderately promising, if familiar, set-up: A married couple, troubled by a recent domestic tragedy, vacations at a resort in a tropical paradise. There, they spend their days lolling along the beach, and their nights in a “floating villa,” an open-air room just a few feet from the water. Warm breezes blow, sheer curtains billow, and ballads flicker on the soundtrack.
The two (Alicia Silverstone and James Tupper) indulge in seaside views, fruity drinks, exotic cuisine, impromptu swimming and snorkeling, and the perhaps welcome social and cultural isolation of temporarily living in a place where nobody looks like them, or speaks their language.
Alas, on the horizon are dark clouds — it’s monsoon season in Vietnam, after all — along with psychological threats to the pair’s marital bonds. Not to mention that awfully temperamental wi-fi connection. There could be worse things than not being able to readily document your happy travels on social media.
Right on cue, here come the cheap thrills and unconvincing horrors: In rolls a big storm, followed by the arrival of menacing creatures from the deep. And, eventually, the kind of “I’m-so-scared” moaning, shrieking and whimpering from Silverstone that grows scarier and more annoying by the minute.
“The Requin,” reportedly shot using green screens at Universal Studios Orlando, is like a poor man’s cross between “Jaws” and “Open Water,” starring the most talented actors from your high school. Bonus: The title — French for “shark,” ya know — has to be the year’s silliest sounding and most off-putting name for an English-language movie.
In case you need to know: The cast of “The Requin,” mostly a two-person affair, also includes Deirdre O’Connell and Jennifer Mudge as Silverstone’s mom and sister, respectively, seen only on video screens. Credit or blame for the pedestrian direction and soapy screenplay goes to Vietnamese-born Le-Van Kliet (“The Princess,” “Furie”).
Aside from the gimmicky shark action, the special effects are passable. But the filmmaker succeeds in neither plumbing the depths of a relationship sinking under the weight of trauma nor creating the kinds of chills and suspense suggested by the harrowing circumstances faced by the movie’s lead characters. Consider it a lost opportunity.
Message to all those other sea-horror movies: Breathe easy. This “Requin” is no real threat.