Blake Lively stars in a tight little actioner that runs shy of 90 minutes, but features some crisp and beautiful location and underwater photography.

Lively is Nancy, a med student who has journeyed to Mexico to surf a secret beach that her mother once surfed long ago when she learned she was pregnant with Nancy. She’s alone, but is an experienced surfer.

She’s prepared, and she’s going to enjoy her day, even when she’s the last one out in the surf.

Things take a turn for the worst when she finds that she’s not alone. There’s a shark in the water with her, and now, following it’s attack on her, she can’t get back to shore.

Crisply told, the store rockets along, and puts Nancy in some serious jeopardy, but also shows she’s a strong, smart woman. But will it be enough?

The camera work is wonderful, and there are moments when it leans into the Jaws idea of not showing the shark; letting the camera take that role. Having said that, most of the visual effects for the shark look great, some not as much.

Story-wise as a viewer you want to see Nancy not only escape, but beat the shark. And this leads to a bit of a silly though well-executed climax that gives just that. The shark was just being a shark, it’s not evil or villainous.

Obviously not everything was shot on location, and there is some set and tank work, as well as blue screen. But it’s combined nicely, and makes a slick looking film that lets Lively shine as she struggles for survival.

I rather enjoyed this one, except for how the shark’s fate plays out.

I also like that when the shark attacks, we don’t always see it, unless it’s attacking Nancy. For the most part, we simply see Nancy’s reactions, and that works great. It makes the viewer’s imagination generate the image, and that would be scarier than anything they put on screen.

Running at 86 minutes the film doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but does give Nancy a broad character sketch for Lively to build off of and invest the audience.

It was fun. I would have changed the climax, but everything else around it really worked for me. I found Lively engaging, and yes, very easy to watch. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I found it to be an entertaining shark movie.

So, it did the job. But that climax. Sigh.