Work stressing you out? Got seemingly insurmountable personal problems? Maybe just a case of the winter blues?

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra has a solution for you: his new shark attack survival film, The Shallows.

Go see it and you’re guaranteed one-and-a-half hours of tightly crafted, nail-biting, beautiful escapism.

The Blake Lively-led survival thriller has flown under the radar ahead of its Australian release, perhaps given its seemingly cheesy combo of gratuitously bikini-clad blonde and cheap shark attack action.

But while The Shallows more than delivers on that promise of blood, gore and boobs, it’s also a far more compelling affair than one might assume.

Lively stars as Nancy, a medical school drop-out who travels to Mexico to surf at a secret beach her mother (who recently passed away) discovered at the same age.

Blake Lively plays Nancy, a medical school dropout. Photo: Sony Pictures

Of course, bliss quickly gives way to terror as Nancy discovers she’s sharing the idyllic bay with a massive hungry shark.

Using visceral editing and minimal dialogue, Collet-Serra has crafted something between a Jaws-style thriller and a fascinating survival movie in the same vein as recent hits like 127 Hours, The Martian and Gravity.

Perhaps what makes The Shallows so unexpectedly strong is its sense of self-awareness.

There are plenty of close-up shots of Lively’s tanned, lithe body in order to satisfy a particular audience, but those quickly give way to impressive stunts, mesmerising surfing shots and glistening ‘Mexican’ scenery (the movie was actually filmed on Australia’s Lord Howe Island).

The movie was filmed on Australia’s Lord Howe Island. Photo: Sony Pictures

Collet-Serra takes immense pleasure in messing with his audience from the get-go, building suspense to an unbearable level long before we even get our first glimpse of the monster lurking beneath.

You can forgive the film for its various shortcomings – some awkward CGI, Nancy’s cheesy sentimental backstory and a fairly implausible plot to name a few – simply because its premise is so well-executed.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra will have you on the edge of your seat with nerve-wracking near-misses. Photo: Sony Pictures

A lot of this is thanks to Lively, who makes for a captivating leading lady. Obviously beautiful and eminently watchable, her extremely physical performance is commanding, tireless and, at times, a great source of comic relief.

Watching resourceful Nancy navigate her hellish situation with the help of her medical training is engrossing and Lively is the kind of actor who is easy to barrack for.

Nancy (Lively) must use her medical training and resourcefulness to survive. Photo: Sony Pictures

Pre-release expectations for The Shallows were low, but several critics have lauded the film for not trying as hard as its contemporaries (cough, Suicide Squad, cough).

Vanity Fair urged audiences to think of the film as the jellyfish Nancy encounters in one particularly harrowing scene: “lightweight, translucent, by turns graceful and awkward. And occasionally capable of a surprisingly potent jolt”.

Lively spends much of the movie drenched, bleeding, exhausted and terrified. Photo: Sony Pictures

The Telegraph said the film stands apart from others, “because it’s fun that’s actually fun – the real pulse-thundering, breath-shortening deal”.

“Collet-Serra and Lively show no mercy in hooking us with the B-movie tension. And we bite,” Rolling Stone reviewer Peter Travers declared.

The Shallows isn’t breaking new ground, nor will it win any awards, but it’s damn entertaining. Just avoid it if you want to go anywhere near the ocean this summer.