When Halle Berry made her big-screen debut because the crack-addicted Vivian in essentially the most harrowing part of Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” she put your entire world on discover that she was going to be an actor first and a film star second. Clearly, she would rapidly study early in her profession to play the Hollywood recreation and settle for thinly-written roles that requested her to do little greater than seem like one of the crucial breathtakingly lovely individuals on the planet, however she by no means went greater than a 12 months or two with out difficult herself. This was significantly troublesome to do, given the dearth of complicated roles being written for Black ladies on the time.
Berry was 10 years into her movie performing profession when she landed the function that will change every thing for her. As Leticia Musgrove in Marc Forster’s bleak 2001 drama “Monster’s Ball,” she summoned up a fierce symphony of heartbreak, fury, and romantic craving. We knew Berry was a formidable expertise, however her portrayal of Leticia was on one other stage. She was the favourite to take residence the Oscar for Greatest Actress all through most of that 12 months’s awards season, and when she received it felt like Berry’s ascendance was full. From this level ahead, she’d exist in the identical actor-star pantheon as Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, and Katharine Hepburn.
Frustratingly, nevertheless, Hollywood went proper again to not figuring out harness Berry’s boundless abilities after that. She then proceeded to play Pierce Brosnan’s feminine sidekick Jinx in “Die One other Day” (the critically reviled Bond movie that hastened the “On line casino Royale” reboot), delivered a recreation efficiency in Matthew Kassovitz’s mediocre horror flick “Gothika,” and was squandered within the embarrassing field workplace flop “Catwoman.” She ultimately obtained to point out off her performing chops reverse Benicio del Toro in “Issues We Misplaced within the Fireplace,” and earned respectable opinions as a lady coping with dissociative id dysfunction in “Frankie & Alice,” however neither film gained awards traction. On the outset of the 2010s, Berry felt adrift. Alas, for the time being she desperately wanted successful, she starred in what stays the worst reviewed movie of her profession.
Halle Berry obtained eaten alive by critics for the shark thriller Darkish Tide
Actor-turned-director John Stockwell had established himself within the 2000s as a succesful director of aquatic adventures decked out with wildly interesting casts. The browsing flick “Blue Crush” launched Kate Bosworth’s profession, whereas “Into the Blue” confirmed off the finely sculpted our bodies of Paul Walker and Jessica Alba as they went diving in and across the Bahamas. Neither film was a traditional, however Stockwell not less than knew make his stars look ravishing within the water.
He didn’t, nevertheless, have significantly sturdy materials at his disposal when he got down to make the swimming-with-sharks thriller “Darkish Tide.” Berry stars as a former open-water diver whose love of encountering sharks on their residence turf outdoors of an anti-shark cage has been snuffed out by a tragic accident. When she’s lured again into the water by a rich businessman, would not you understand it, the sharks begin performing like sharks once more, and she or he finds herself going through one more toothy tragedy.
As a shark-film aficionado, I can guarantee you’ve got I’ve sat by means of worse motion pictures than “Darkish Tide.” However it’s arduous to think about one which makes use of precise shark footage to such snooze-inducing impact. The critics agree. Launched on to VOD on March 8, 2012, “Darkish Tide” boasts a disastrous 0% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian referred to as it an “oddly tiresome thriller” in his one-star evaluate, whereas the Los Angeles Occasions’ Robert Abele wrote, “The one palpable emotion from ‘Darkish Tide’ is disappointment for Berry, treading water in dreary efforts like this.”
Berry managed to come back again up for air the next 12 months, scoring a respectably-sized hit with Brad Anderson’s tautly paced horror-thriller “The Name.” She’s had just a few missteps between then and now, however nothing as resoundingly ineffective as “Darkish Tide.”
