Under Paris (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – A billionaire on the eve of his 75th birthday, invites his estranged children back home out of fear that tonight someone or something is going to kill him. He puts each of their inheritances on the line, to make sure they’ll help.

My Take – Over the past decade, every year has seen the release of bunch of shark horror features, each laced their own set of ridiculous premises, but ranging in their execution level, from good campy fun to atrociously bad, each still trying to imitate the success story of Jaws (1975).

Though most continue to be appropriately unwatchable, a few films, like Deep Blue Sea (1999), The Shallows (2016), 47 Meters Down (2017), The Meg (2018) and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) to name a few, have managed to sneak through by effectiveness and by largely doubling down on daftness or campy fun thrills.

Joining this relatively smaller list is this latest from French director Xavier Gens (Hitman, The Divide), which sneakily released on Netflix 15 days ago, and finds sharks swimming in the City of Lights, specifically, in the legendary Seine River. Incorporating intriguing elements, while never forgetting its nature, the resulting feature is ridiculous, bold, and delivers a surprising roller coaster of a good time.

Most importantly, it plays it straight without any it’s so-bad-it’s-good posturing, offering just killer set-pieces and a firm understanding of the necessity of mystery required to make a creature feature work. Indeed, director Gens’ love for genre is impossible to miss here as he lets loose with some wild and gnarly shark kills that are a lot of fun to witness.

As the time of this writing, the film has received approvals by legends such as author Stephen King, is the top-streamed Non-English language movie this week, and the top movie on the platform with nearly 41 million views, according to the streamer.

The story follows Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), a marine researcher, who along with her team, which also includes her husband, has been studying sharks in the vicinity of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, particularly a shortfin mako shark named Lilith, to study the effects that the chemicals are having on them. Unfortunately, during a harmless dive to obtain a blood sample from Lilith, who has somehow grown twice the size she should be, the shark ends up attacking the group, killing everyone and leaving Sophia traumatized.

Three years later, Sophia, who is now working at an aquarium in Paris, finds herself contacted by Mika (Léa Léviant), a young environmentalist and a member of a radical ocean preservation activist group, who informs her that Lilith’s tracking beacon is still active and that the shark has traveled from the Pacific and up the River Seine, and is seemingly trapped in the city.

While Mika, her girlfriend Ben (Nagisa Morimoto) and the group are more concerned about freeing the shark and returning it to the sea, Sophia is more concerned with preserving the lives of Paris citizens, especially since in the upcoming days the city is preparing for the Olympics and is hosting the World Triathlon Championships on the Seine for the first time ever.

Fearing the worst, Sophia joins hands with Adil (Nassim Lyes), a Seine River police diver, and embarks on a journey to do whatever is necessary to stop the underwater stage that is clearly set for carnage.

Of course, some of what follows is pretty predictable. Several people make some really bad choices and yes, Paris has an arrogant, careless mayor (Anne Marivin) who, like all government officials in creature features, suffers from a pathological failure to be adequately afraid of sharks. She has only one priority: making sure that the upcoming triathlon goes off without a hitch. And it all inevitably leads to a plenty of blood and body parts.

But the film has its share of surprises. Some are absolutely preposterous, but in a wildly entertaining way, and require you to just chuckle and go with it. Others catch us off-guard and send the story in some unexpected directions. For the first half or so, it unfolds like a fairly classy suspense thriller about a rarely seen threat.

But it is in the second half where the film comes into full element, all leading to an exceptional climax. Indeed, the film leans heavily into its climate change themes.

Though, it gets a little heavy-handed with its message, having the shark mutated by chemicals dumped in the ocean, feels believable to an extent. As for the sharks, ultimately plural, they look believable when gliding ominously slow, cheap as all hell when darting in for the kill.

There are three major confrontations with Lillith, starting with the opening sequence, and the finale battle is just superbly shot. I enjoyed the cinematography on display, with the filmmakers really utilizing different looks for the underwater shots. They were able to take advantage of the dirty river water as a great way to hide the shark and increase the tension. With variant color schemes help to provide a unique identity for each scene.

Considering the plot, the entire ensemble does a fine job with Bérénice Bejo, who was for nominated at Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Artist (2011), leading the charge with a relatable role. Supporting her, Nassim Lyes, Léa Léviant, Nagisa Morimoto, Sandra Parfait, Daouda Keita, Aksel Ustun, Aurélia Petit and Anne Marivin are alright. On the whole, ‘Under Paris’ is a solid shark thriller that makes the most of its premise.