Adrift: A Survival Story at Sea, Long on Love, Short on Thrills
Adrift tells a tale of ocean survival, brimming with affection and tenderness, yet noticeably lacking in suspenseful drama.
Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley), an American free spirit, finds herself in Tahiti, where she encounters Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin), a British sailor journeying on his own yacht. They quickly discover a deep connection and become inseparable. When acquaintances ask Richard to sail their luxurious yacht from Tahiti to the United States, Tami joins her new boyfriend on the voyage. Midway through their journey, a powerful hurricane strikes. The vessel miraculously stays afloat, but the engine, communication system, and masts are destroyed. To make matters worse, Richard suffers a severe injury, leaving him barely able to move. Tami must single-handedly repair the yacht, navigate their course, and care for her injured lover. She calculates that, even in the best-case scenario, it will take the yacht over a month to reach the nearest land.
Fun Fact: Sam Claflin stepped in for Miles Teller, who initially intended to star in the film but couldn’t fit it into his schedule.
In recent years, we’ve seen numerous films about ocean wanderers who face adversity and survive far from civilization. Adrift is another addition to this genre, based on a true story from 1983. Unfortunately, its adherence to reality prevents Baltasar Kormákur’s Hollywood adaptation from being as captivating as the genre’s best examples (such as Life of Pi).
Most of the filming took place on the open sea. Only the hurricane scenes were filmed in a studio and enhanced with computer-generated effects.
The Elements of a Compelling Survival Story
Successful survival stories typically have two key components. First, there’s the “long game” – managing dwindling supplies of food and water, maintaining psychological well-being, and addressing other concerns that don’t pose an immediate threat but become crucial over time. Second, there’s the “short game” – crisis situations that demand quick, decisive action, often involving life-threatening risks. Adrift has the former but lacks the latter. Aside from rescuing Richard immediately after the hurricane, Tami faces no urgent situations. Without these moments of tension, the film, despite its seemingly thrilling premise, becomes a monotonous display of Tami’s competence.
Despite her initial self-deprecation, Tami proves to be an excellent sailor. She masters the sextant, her duct-tape repairs hold perfectly, and she swiftly replaces the torn mast. If Peter the Great had witnessed Tami’s ease in repairing everything, he would have immediately married her and taken her to Russia to maintain his new fleet. Richard, barely alive but more experienced, offers little practical advice, leaving him to simply praise Tami’s efforts and remind her of her capabilities. While this is heartwarming, it also induces drowsiness. In fact, the heroine spends much of her time lying down to conserve energy and food.
Flashbacks and Monotony
To break the monotony of survival, Kormákur intercuts the narrative with flashbacks of Tami and Richard’s courtship, their dates, and the beginning of their voyage. While this helps develop the characters, it merely replaces one form of monotony with another. Tami and Richard are in that saccharine phase of a relationship where everything about their partner is perfect and there’s nothing to argue about. As a result, they constantly laugh and cuddle, while the audience checks their watches.
A Lack of Dramatic Drive
Near the end, Kormákur injects an extra dose of sentimentality – but only that, without adding drama or drive. Consequently, all the acting efforts of Shailene Woodley (from Divergent) and the achievements of the cinematographers, set designers, and special effects artists are wasted. Instead of a captivating narrative, the film becomes a feature-length warning: “Don’t go sailing if you don’t know how to fix a yacht!” A valid point, but one that could have been made much more concisely.