First Take: Adrift- give me a train over sea travel any day

SYNOPSIS- A true story of survival, as a young couple’s chance encounter leads them first to love, and then on the adventure of a lifetime as they face one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history.

Baltasar Kormákur is a director who of late has become known for taking true stories about natural disasters, and adapted them very well for the big screen- just look at 2015′s Everest for example. 3 years later, he’s back with an adaptation of Tami Ashcraft’s book, and once again he is able to deliver the goods, but not in the same way.

The direction is very solid from Kormákur, he is able to pace it very well, but unlike Everest, the script does make the film drag- taking the book into screenplay form is Aaron and Jordan Kandell alongside David Branson Smith, and unfortunately they just had to make it non-linear. That’s a decision I don’t think benefits the film, especially considering the audience this one is targeting. It’s shot decently by Robert Richardson, and the score from Volker Bertelmann (best known to some people as

Hauschka) is a Ronseal job, it just does what it says on the tin.

Performance wise, there are only two major ones to talk about: Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin. They hold this film together so strongly that it feels like the PVA glue that was suggested for use in episodes of Art Attack when I was younger (I’m 20 now, I can finally do these jokes)- and in Woodley’s case, she went all in, gaining a producer credit on the film as a result. Both of them are able to make this film sail, but at 1 hour 36 minutes, it did feel a little rushed.

THE VERDICT

Adrift is a perfectly fine film for what it’s meant to be- a nice bit of filler inbetween the bigger blockbusters coming out this summer, and while the plot is a little difficult to get into, it was effective in its depiction of the events of those few weeks in 1983.

RATING- 3.5/5