Breaking Surface (2020)

Breaking Surface (2020) is a Swedish-Norwegian-Belgian thriller.

A few days after Christmas, Ida and her sister Tuva organise a winter diving trip to a remote corner of the Norwegian coast. During the dive, a rockfall traps Tuva underwater. As Ida surfaces for help, she discovers that the landslide has also buried their equipment, phones and car keys…. completely cut off from the world, Ida will do everything in her power to save her sister.

Four years before The Last Breath, Joachim Hedén had started sharing his underwater scares with us! I must admit that I prefer this one. We’re reminded here of films like Open Water (2003), 127 Hours (2010) and The Descent (2005).

I’m going to say ‘breathless’! Minimal actors and locations, MAXIMUM suspense. It even makes you, the viewer in front of the screen, want to save your oxygen and try to lift the boulder…

This kind of film always makes me choke, more or less. I’m not a good swimmer, so… seeing people underwater for an entire film… it’s not easy for me. It’s as good as 47 Meters Down (2017), except here you don’t even need a shark to be in mortal danger.

The ending isn’t very realistic. I’m talking about the last 3 minutes. And the very last few seconds are very poetic, pleasant to watch… but perhaps too much for some!

A very good, stifling moment, I’d say, but exciting. Things like this have to happen, and God knows how many people didn’t survive and whose bodies were never found.

My conclusion: thumbs up!

PS : Note that The Dive (2023) is a German remake of this film. I don’t know yet whether it’s useless or not.