It was highly anticipated, especially by those expecting a nice trashy movie about sharks. Instead, Under Paris – from the June 5th on Netflix – has the courage to take itself seriously. It lasts too long. And it makes no sense even though 4 screenwriters worked on it.
Leaving us anxiously, and certainly not anxiously, waiting for a sequel. An opportunity and a nice budget wasted.
The plot of Under Paris
Paris, 2024. For the first time in history, Paris is organizing the Triathlon World Championships on the Seine. The scientist Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), recovering from a personal trauma during a study on sharks, discovers thanks to a young French activist, Mika (Léa Léviant), that one of the sharks from her research arrived in the Seine, adapting to fresh water. Although Sophia and the police warn the mayor of the danger, the authorities choose to ignore the presence of the shark and proceed with the sporting event, while Sophia does everything to avoid a massacre…
Between environmentalism and absurdity, a film that takes itself too seriously
I don’t know about you, but I already knew – thanks to a documentary – that it is not uncommon for those who try to clean up waste from the Seine to come across some bomb. At that point the police and the bomb squad are called, who ensure safety as per routine the unexploded ordnance.
So I immediately felt comfortable with the credibility of the context. For a moment. Just for a moment.
And yes, it’s true: there was one in the Seine last year an orcaand before that a Beluga. Therefore, with the initial premise of the film – more impressive for the amount of plastic that we managed to pour into the seas that due to the mutation reported by the shark – we can believe that there is also a shark in the Seine. With less disbelief expected.
Very likely too unconsciousness of activists and the stupidity of researchers to call Lilith a shark. Lilith. Name known to all fans of the horror genre for its origin from a demon of Mesopotamian culture associated with the storm and believed to bring misfortune, illness and death.
Everything adds up, in short. We believe both in naivety and in the stupidity and unconsciousness that often intervene when making important decisions. We know well how the contemporary world works. AND We hope to be ready for good entertainment. Big mistake.
Because everything else flows away exactly in an embarrassing way copying from many other shark movies, starting with The shark. The first, the one from 1975. The film for which the term blockbuster was coined: box office hit. Politics and economics do not care about the risks to public safety. The experts on duty alert the authorities and the authorities are careful from canceling scheduled events.
Nothing new. And as often happens in films of the same genre, it really makes you want to cheer for the shark.
There are two roads for films about sharks in anomalous situations: the path of nonsense, which can very well work and make a film without any scientific basis become a cult, and the path of the desperate search for verisimilitude, which represents the failure of Under Paris.
As for the “scientific” conclusions, let’s call them that, we don’t give spoilers and we don’t comment on them ridiculousness of certain statements. Just know that from a beginning with a semblance of credibility, we have arrived at science fiction. Stuff to make it seem more realistic Sharknadowhich at least it was fun and he was careful not to take himself seriously.
At this point in the plot, the clumsy attempt of psychological and relational in-depth analysis fails miserably. It would have been better to continue, paradoxically, along the edge of absurdity while remaining on that line. The desire to return to the verisimilitude of the very first sequences screws everything up.
And Under Paris erases the initial tension in an instant, however divei – literally – in a river of senseless sequences until I dare say a conclusion offensive.
In short: if you want sharks, watch all the other films. Even the trash and b-movies that have become a cult precisely because ofatmosphere in which absurdities are presented to us (see Sharknado). Inviting us to have fun and share. Which it certainly does not gonna happen with this film.
