Adrift (2018)

"Adrift" is a yet another lost in the ocean movie. But it's neither "Life of Pi", nor "All Is Lost"... it's probably somewhere in between, as story, philosophy, feeling, etc. As a movie, well... probably quite far from the first, and probably also below the second. Still, not something to ignore completely...

We have a story (based on a real case) that starts somewhere in the Pacific, after a class 5 hurricane that almost breaks apart a medium sized yacht. Almost... = the boat is left without masts, with lots of water aboard, with even more (food, equipment, etc) lost overboard, with some cracks, but still floating. Out of the pair who was aboard, Richard and Tami, only she seems initially to have survived. However, after exploring the surroundings she finds her fiance more dead than alive, with an open broken leg and some shattered ribs, floating closely hanging on the lifeboat. From this point, the narration splits in two, with flashbacks since the two have met up to the moment of the hurricane, and from the moment of the hurricane onward. It's almost like having two movies interwoven into one: a romance that gets a bit corny sometimes, and a survival movie.

It's quite tough to get enough material for an entire movie out of such subject. What's there to fill 90 minutes (or more)? Here, the background story does the job. Besides the fact that helps defining the characters, however, this piece is nothing more than a pretty bland love story: girl meets guy, they fall in love, they go sailing. Maybe I'm a bit subjective, but the interesting part is by far the other "film". Not that we have something extraordinary original here, but at least it tries... Now well, we have a real case on which is based, but the movie moves a bit forward. There's an attempt for a mega-twist at some point, which you don't really see coming, and to be honest is a bit too forced. Nevertheless, the idea can be appreciated. Since I started with "Life of Pi", was the tiger real? :) No more spoilers...

Rating: 3 out of 5