Adrift (2018)

[baumer]

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[baumer]

A film that starts off as part survival adventure, part Nicholas Sparks love story.  At first I began to question why they made the choice to inter cut between the present and then the past...how they met, fell in love and ultimately accepted an offer to sail a boat from Tahiti to San Diego.  But then near the end, it all comes together and if it wasn't hard enough watching the movie, fearing the worse for Richard, then the one small twist just destroyed me, left in puddles.  

 

After Spielberg finished Jaws, he told anyone that would listen, to never film on the open sea, ever.  The elements, the waves, the weather and everything in between basically cause chaos.  Director Baltasar Kormakur did not take heed to that warning and the result is something magical.  To get the feeling of complete isolation, the cast and crew would sail out 2 hours from land to film.  Kormakur is an experienced sailor and I'm sure that came in handy during filming.  Half of the movie takes place on the open water and slowly but surely you see the two characters start to fade.  They haven't given up hope but they are 1500 miles from land, have little food and little water.  How Tammy and Richard survived 41 days on their own is a miracle.  Tammy had to do it all.  Take care of Richard, keep the boat afloat, catch food, make shelters and so on.  There were times when she was in tears and close to going crazy, but she kept going, incredibly reaching Hawaii.  She was not the experienced sailor, that was Richard.  That makes it all the more incredible.

 

There's one big plot twist and I will not reveal that here.  If you know nothing about the story, keep it that way.  Go in blind.  It'll work so much better for you.

 

Shaileen owns the movie.  She's simply a rock.  Her range of emotions are incredible and she has to carry the film most of the way.  Claflin is good too but Woodley has much more to do.  I simply love her performance and I really hope she gets a nomination this year.  She's simply brilliant.

 

I loved the movie.

 

9/10

[filmlover]

This was good, but it fell several rungs short of being among the best "survival" movies for me. I'm not sure the non-linear approach is completely successful: while it's certainly done by design (I went into this with virtually no foreknowledge of the real people and events), the pacing is uneven and as a result, didn't quite deliver the emotional pay-off that I was hoping for, even though most of the scenes on the boat are effective. Shailene Woodley is easily the best thing about the movie; this is arguably the most challenging role yet of her promising young career, and she hits all of the required beats and makes Tami a more realized person than the script has written her as. It's one of her best performances to date (her best since The Descendants imo). As the only other person in the film with significant screentime, Sam Claflin is also good but doesn't have as much to sink into as his co-star. It's a fine entry into the survival-at-sea genre that's absolutely worth seeing just for Woodley's great performance alone. B

[baumer]

Saw it a second time and because you know the twist already then you can actually pick up a few Clues along the way that reveal that Richard isn't really there. They're obviously things that you would have a very difficult I'm picking up not knowing the twist but for example when Tammy says we're probably already dead and Richard replies that you are tired and cold and hungry and dehydrated but you are definitely not dead. He doesn't say we he says you. Little things like that I find interesting.

[Blankments]

Adrift is better than it has any right to be. Being another low budget survival film to open in summer, this is the first one to have actual merit as a film, featuring subtly great direction and two winning performances. Woodley is legitimately great in it, and the romance that anchors the plot actually adds a lot of gravitas to a film that could’ve easily had none. It all builds to a third act that is full of emotional resonance along with some strong thrills. Adrift is a solid taste of what summer blockbusters used to be, and how, if they’re done right, star-driven low-budget survival thrillers can still be excellent today. A very pleasant surprise. B