As a further bonus, Chum opens and closes with ridiculously heavy-handed voiceovers. When Captain Roy lost his beloved to an invasive shark, it left him broken. Jaws’ crusty old Quint looks sociable and gracious in comparison. Nevertheless, Roy saves newlyweds Tina and Tom and their bridal party pals when a combination of a collision with the shark and their own clumsy stupidity scuttles their party boat.
However, the squirrelly skipper has sinister plans for the entitled revelers. They are going to be chum, in his Ahab-worthy scheme to avenge his late wife. That’s what the diving cage is for. Frankly, this was already the worst wedding ever, because Tina and Tim were on the verge of annulling the whole darn thing. They just couldn’t reconcile her work as counsel for a petroleum company with his dilettantism as a wealthy and privileged environmental activist. However, if they can survive this crisis, then maybe these crazy kids (technically fortysomethings) can work out their differences.
Like a black sheep uncle walking into the Church during the exchange of vows, Chum arrives late to shark-wielding serial killer party. Last year’s Dangerous Animals (also distributed by IFC) got there first and did it better. In Sean Byrne’s earlier film, Jai Courtney plays a flamboyantly and entertainingly deranged predator. In contrast, Zuck and co-screenwriter Joe Leone clearly never truly decided whether they wanted to humanize Captain Roy or not, so they have actor Jim Klock randomly vacillate between tragic obsessive and stone-cold maniac, while maintaining the same impassive reserve.
