Dangerous Waters: Ocean-set Drama Runs Aground

By Liz Braun

Rating: C+

Dangerous Waters is a lot like an after-school TV special, only violent. Dubious, predictable, and short on character development, this B-movie cheesefest is nonetheless watchable thanks to a spirited performance from Odeya Rush (Lady Bird).

Rush plays Rose, a girl of 19. She and her mother Alma (Saffron Burrows) are going on a 10-day boat trip with mom’s new boyfriend Derek (Eric Dane).

Rose is not enthused about the trip but happy to hang out with her mom and maybe get to know Derek better. There’s something a little fishy about Derek, but as the holiday unfolds, he teaches Rose how to tie knots, read charts, and sail the boat.

She’s a quick study.

It’s all on the up-and-up until Rose finds weapons on board the sailboat.

About 20 minutes in, the story changes tack; let that be the last nautical reference that arises unbidden here.

The uneasy family story morphs into a dark crime tale. Another boat rams them, people are hurt, things change. The sailboat is badly damaged. Derek is wounded in the melee, and now Rose has to take care of him.

But her instincts are good, and eventually Rose cannot trust Derek or anyone else and must flee, alone, for her own safety.

Worse yet, she has to fight for her life against bad writing and the sort of villain who announces in advance, “And now I’m going to kill you.”

Luckily, Rose is able to put everything she’s learned to good use as she shoots, stabs, strangles and bludgeons her way to safety in a flurry of brutal violence.

On the cheese metre, Dangerous Waters falls somewhere between Kraft Singles and Velveeta.

On another note, this is Ray Liotta’s last film.

He appears briefly in the third act of Dangerous Waters as a villain; whatever may have been intended, death reduced his role to a cameo, but he still manages to be super-creepy and menacing. RIP.

Dangerous Waters. Directed by John Barr, written by John Barr and Mark Jackson. Starring Odeya Rush, Eric Dane, Saffron Burrows, and Ray Liotta. Available now on VOD/digital.