326. Adrift; movie review

ADRIFT
Cert 12A

96 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate injury detail, threat, infrequent strong language

I can't imagine what inspires people to take on huge oceans in small boats but that might be because I have lived the vast majority of my life as far away from the sea as it is possible to be in the UK.
In addition, Mrs W is a terrible sailor and even threw up when we went on a holiday catamaran trip around the coast of Cyprus.
This is bad form for people from the most famous seafaring nation on earth and our lack of adventure is the polar opposite of that of fellow Brit, Richard Sharp.
Sharp, played here by Sam Claflin, was born to the waves and had already sailed around much of the world single-handedly before the events of Baltasar Kormákur's Adrift happened.
On one of his port stopovers he fell for American, Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley), and they had a rare old time before being asked to take a rich couple's yacht from Tahiti to San Diego.

As the title suggests, things did not go well and the pair were confronted by a giant hurricane. From then on, Adrift becomes a battle of survival against increasingly mounting odds.
Woodley has fast become one of the most popular young actresses around today, not afraid to take on action and pathos.
Here she is adept at both, being flung around the yacht, diving into the sea and having to manhandle the stricken vessel because her fella has been badly injured.
Meanwhile, she has little clue as to whether her geographical skills are going to be good enough to help them reach land.
Adrift is based, quite faithfully, on Oldham's real-life account of her and Sharp's ill-fated journey and its mix of romance and action should be intoxicating.
Its problem is that similar movies, either representing fact or fiction, have hit the big screen in recent years - including the two films in 2018 about Donald Crowhurst's ill-fated entry into the round-the-world yacht race.
As a standalone, Adrift would be poignant and effective with Woodley and Clafin gelling well but I couldn't help thinking that we had seen the like so many times before.
That might explain why I felt as if the film lacked a bit of bite.

Reasons to watch: Shailene Woodley giving her all
Reasons to avoid: Lacks a bit of bite

Laughs: None
Jumps: None 
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7/10

Director quote - Baltasar Kormákur: "“It dawned on me that I had seen a lot of ‘man versus nature’ movies — I had done a few of them myself — but I hadn’t really seen many ‘woman against nature’ films."

The big question - Why would anyone want to go sailing again after that?

Share this post