Ray Liotta, 67, died in 2022 in his sleep in the Dominican Republic while making “Dangerous Waters,” and while his presence in the film is severely truncated, it turns out that the low-budget action thriller from director-cowriter-cinematographer John Barr (“Blood and Money”) is better-than-average. One thing giving the film an interesting slant is its setting for the most part on the high seas.
The film’s notably resilient protagonist Rose (the talented Odeya Rush, “Lady Bird”) works the graveyard shift at a Florida hotel, while her mother Alma (Saffron Burrow, speaking in a workable American accent) works the swing shift at a local diner.
Alma’s new boyfriend Derek Stipes (Eric Dane) has invited Alma and Rose on a 10-day voyage aboard his sailboat by way of vacation. Alma is gung-ho; Rose not so much, especially after she finds Derek’s AR-15 decorated with a dagger-through-a-rose symbol stowed under a seat cushion. OK, I never said the film was subtle. Barr and co-writer Mark Jackson (“War Story”) manage to concoct a combination of the 1989 Nicole Kidman breakthrough drama “Dead Calm” and an offshoot of the Liam Neeson 2008 B-movie classic “Taken” with Rose as both a victim and a knockoff of the Neeson character.
Rose, whose father died in service in Iraq, is a quick learner. She picks up the art of knot-making from Derek pretty quickly. Derek is impressed with her shooting skills when they give the assault rifle a workout. But can she learn to use a sextant just from watching Derek?
One of the film’s tricks is withholding just how evil a characters is until later. For a bit, characters play at a dangerous game of “Cast Away” on an uninhabited island with a big cliff. Rose will learn the meaning of the expression from the frying pan into the fire after she is rescued by a group of sailors.
Rush might look a foot shorter than the statuesque Burrows (“Westworld”). But they have an engaging mother-daughter chemistry, and Rose’s impatience with Alma has a lived-in feeling. Her beautiful mother has probably had a long line of bad choices behind her. Dane’s Derek at first seems only like a bit of jerk and a horny, old dude. But he will believably sprout horns and tail.
Other developments don’t necessarily seem exactly likely. But they are credible steps in a yarn of this sort. Things began to go south when Alma gets beaned by the spar and lands in the water. A carved mermaid turns out to be foreboding in more ways than one. Somewhere along her half-wild childhood, Rose appears to have picked up some fighting skills, check. Another sly move arrives when Rose learns that the name of the “second hand” boat was also the name of Derek’s ex (?) wife, and Rose doesn’t call him on it. We keep hearing about a character named “The Captain” and his appetite for “young girls.” Yes, that is the unsavory Liotta role. Enjoy it while you can.
“Dangerous Waters” does not “devolve” into “Die Hard” on a boat. But that’s where it’s headed, and by now we’ve come to expect bad-ass behavior from Rose, and, again, it’s not a bad ride.
(“Dangerous Waters” contains sexually suggestive content, profanity and extreme violence)
“Dangerous Waters”
Not Rated. On VOD. Grade: B
